Understanding the situation of fertilizer input，management and yield level of smallholders cultivating Chinese prickly ash(Zanthoxylum bungeanum Maxim.) could be helpful to guiding scientific fertilization and production management. Since 2017，a questionnaire survey was conducted on the Chinese prickly ash production in Chongqing city，and a total of 225 questionnaires were obtained. The mean of the upper 5% of investigation yields was used as the yield potential. The yield level was grouped as the classification basis，and the fertilization status，yield gaps，their influencing factors，and the potential of smallholder fertilizer reduction were studied. Currently，the average yield of Chinese prickly ash in Chongqing was 8.66 t/hm²，and the regional yield potential was 16.7 t/hm²，the average yield gap was 8.02 t/hm². The current production level of smallholders only achieved 52% of yield potential meanly，and the yield gap was 3.11，7.84，12.2 t/hm² for the high，medium，and low yield groups，respectively. The application rates of nitrogen，phosphorus，and potassium fertilizer were N 283 kg/hm²，P2O5 182 kg/hm² and K2O 237 kg/hm²，respectively. Compared with the reasonable fertilization fitted by the linear-plateau model，the high-yield group had the greater potential of chemical fertilizers reduction，which were 36%，19% and 16% for nitrogen，phosphorus，and potassium reduction proportions，respectively. In contrast，the fertilizer rate of average level，medium and low yield groups of Chinese prickly ash were slightly deficient. Besides，optimizing fertilization rates(N 299 kg/hm²；P2O5 228 kg/hm²；K2O 307 kg/hm²)，frequency of fertilizer split application(4～5 times)，planting density(close planting，≥2000 plants/hm²)and fruit-setting branch management(single-length ≥ 1.5 m/branch；the amount of fruit-setting branch = 47～48 strip/plant)effectively reduced the yield gaps of Chinese prickly ash by 15.4%～43.3%，and the contribution rate of fertilization management(i.e.，application rate and split application)and planting density to the regional Chinese prickly ash production was 52% based on the random forest model analysis. To sum up，the Chinese prickly ash production management levels of smallholders in Chongqing varied greatly，and the mean target of fertilizer reduction and benefit improvement was smallholder with high-yielding level. Improving the farmers’ awareness and level of scientific fertilization，optimized field-grown management，the quality protection of arable land and rational planting density were conducive to closing the yield gaps and improving the production efficiency of Chinese prickly ash，thus contributing to the sustainable development of agriculture.