The invention provides a rice non-endosperm expression promoter SAFES3 and application thereof. The invention further provides an expression cassette and crop expression vector containing the promoter. Specifically, the invention provides application of the promoter in crop gene engineering. The promoter provided by the invention can be used for specifically driving the expression of exogenous genes in rice non-endosperm tissue, and advantages of transgenic breeding are brought into full play by using characteristics of the non-endosperm expression promoter, so as to breed more and better new varieties. Verified by experiments, the promoter provided by the invention can be used for driving the expression of the exogenous genes in non-edible (non-endosperm) parts of rice and cannot result in the expression in edible parts. Once the promoter is extensively used, popularization is very convenient, and the quality of rice can be protected from transgenic influence as much as possible, so that the elimination of people's doubt about transgenic products is better facilitated.