With the increasing contradiction between water supply and demand in large-scale irrigation areas in Northwest China, food production security has gradually become a major threat. The traditional optimized canal water distribution model is mainly based on the objective function to optimize the crop water demand configuration, and the objective function parameters and constraints are more complicated. It is difficult to achieve global optimization of water distribution. This paper takes the Xidong canal system in the Xijun Irrigation District of the Heihe River Basin as an example, adopts the principle of “constant flow, controlled opening”, and establishes a backtracking search algorithm to optimize the water distribution equation based on the principle of minimum remaining flow under the condition of a constant flow of the main canal design. Channel valve opening and closing water distribution time diagram, and further obtain the valve control time point skewness coefficient, and compare the obtained results with the vector evaluation genetic algorithm, particle swarm algorithm water distribution time, and valve time control deviation degree, on this basis The adaptability of the model is evaluated in combination with the abandoned water situation of the canal system of Xiaohe Station. The results show that the water distribution time of the backtracking search algorithm, the vector evaluation genetic algorithm, and the particle swarm algorithm are 12.70, 14.38, and 15.50 d, respectively, and the skewness coefficients at the opening time of the valve are 0.093, 0.328, 0.217, which is obvious compared with the water distribution model of the backtracking search algorithm. The time superiority and stability of the backtracking search algorithm is zero in the Xidong canal system where the canal water utilization rate is low, and the water abandonment phenomenon in the canal system of the Xiaohe station with a high canal system water utilization rate is serious, and the algorithm is common It is suitable for areas with low canal water utilization rate. Using the backtracking search algorithm to optimize the water distribution in the irrigation area, under reasonable applicable conditions, not only can ensure the optimal irrigation time and meet the requirements of the canal irrigation system, but also can maintain the relative stability of fluid transportation to achieve the purpose of optimized water distribution in the canal system.