China, one of the countries in the world abundant in agricultural wastes, has a great potential for rural biogas production. As a strategy for building a new socialist countryside and sustainable agriculture in rural China, the development of biogas is an important means to convert agricultural wastes to clean and safe energy, thereby reducing the need for fossil fuel and alleviating environmental pollution. This study presents an assessment of the biogas production potential, its current development state, and perspectives of agricultural wastes in rural China. Estimated data show that annual biogas potential from agricultural wastes is approximately (3350.58 +/- 669.28)x10(8)m(3) (equal to 239.22 +/- 47.78 million tons of equivalent standard coal); such potential has been underutilized in the past. By analyzing and summarizing the direction for future development and various benefits of rural biogas in China, we present burning questions and countermeasures for biogas development and recommend that the future development of rural biogas in China should focus on both household-scale and large-scale development, giving priority to the establishment of large-scale biogas engineering and biogas plants, improvement of biogas comprehensive utilization level, and construction of a reticular model of systemized green agricultural engineering linked with biogas to solve completely the problem of agricultural waste accumulation and improve the living conditions in rural China. Copyright (c) 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.