Changes in soil organic carbon (SOC) in agricultural soils influence soil quality and greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere. Dry farmland covers more than 70% of the whole cropland area in China and plays an important role in mitigating carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. In this study, 4109 dry farmland soil polygons were extracted using spatial overlay analysis of the soil layer (1:500000) and the land use layer (1:500000) to support Century model simulations of SOC dynamics for dry farmland in Anhui Province, East China from 1980 to 2008. Considering two field-validation sites, the Century model performed relatively well in modeling SOC dynamics for dry farmland in the province. The simulated results showed that the area-weighted mean soil organic carbon density (SOCD) of dry farmland increased from 18.77 Mg C ha1 in 1980 to 23.99 Mg C ha1 in 2008 with an average sequestration rate of 0.18 Mg C ha1 year?1. Approximately 94.9% of the total dry farmland area sequestered carbon while 5.1% had carbon lost. Over the past 29 years, the net SOC gain in dry farmland soils of the province was 19.37 Tg, with an average sequestration rate of 0.67 Tg C year1. Augmentation of SOC was primarily due to increased consumption of nitrogen fertilizer and farmyard manure. Moreover, SOC dynamics were highly differentiated among dry farmland soil groups. The integration of the Century model with a fine-scale soil database approach could be conveniently utilized as a tool for the accurate simulation of SOC dynamics at the regional scale. Changes in soil organic carbon (SOC) in agricultural soils influence soil quality and greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere. Dry farmland covers more than 70% of the whole cropland area in China and plays an important role in mitigating carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. In this study, 4109 dry farmland soil polygons were extracted using spatial overlay analysis of the soil layer (1: 500000) and the land use layer (1: 500000) to support Century model simulations of SOC dynamics for dry farmland in Anhui Province, East Considering two field-validation sites, the Century model performed relatively well in modeling SOC dynamics for dry farmland in the province. The simulated results showed that the area-weighted mean soil organic carbon density (SOCD) of dry farmland increased from 18.77 Mg C ha1 in 1980 to 23.99 Mg C ha1 in 2008 with an average sequestration rate of 0.18 Mg C ha1 year 1. Approximately 94.9% of the total dry farmland area sequestered carbon w hile 5.1% had carbon lost. Over the past 29 years, the net SOC gain in dry farmland soils of the province was 19.37 Tg, with an average sequestration rate of 0.67 Tg C year1. Augmentation of SOC was primarily due to increasing consumption of nitrogen Moreover, SOC dynamics were highly differentiated among dry farmland soil groups. The integration of the Century model with a fine-scale soil database approach could be conveniently utilized as a tool for the accurate simulation of SOC dynamics at the regional scale .