[Objective] In the context of ecological civilization construction and the world's first-rate universities and first-rate discipline("double first-rate") construction in the new era, the talent training and teaching reform of soil and water conservation discipline were explored in order to improve the teaching quality of soil and water conservation discipline and to cultivate high-level talents who can serve the local ecological environment construction and social and economic development.[Methods] Taking Guizhou University as an example, we analyzed the tasks faced by the development of soil and water conservation discipline in the new era, and discussed issues such as the goal, requirements and teaching reforms of talent cultivation.[Results] A goal of "based on Guizhou Province, facing the southwest region of China, serving the construction of ecological civilization and striving for world's first-rate" was proposed. The specific requirements of talent cultivation at different levels of bachelors-masters-doctors were analyzed from three aspects including:ability, quality and knowledge.[Conclusion] In the new era, the discipline of soil and water conservation needs to start with teaching reform measures such as optimizing curriculum system, improving teaching methods, enriching practical links and paying attention to international talent cultivation, so as to improve the knowledge system, the teaching quality, ability level and international competitiveness of talent training for ecological civilization construction of soil and water conservation, and to cultivate the first-rate talents of "thick foundation, strong ability and high quality" to serve the construction of ecological civilization of soil and water conservation.