The invention belongs to the field of battery materials, and discloses a preparation method and application of iron phosphate. The preparation method comprises the following steps: roasting iron phosphate waste, adding into an acid solution, dissolving, filtering, and taking the filtrate to obtain a solution A containing iron and phosphorus elements; stirring the solution A and alkali liquor, adjusting the pH value to be acidic, reacting, washing, filtering, and taking filter residues to obtain an amorphous iron phosphate yellow filter cake; aging, pulping and heating the iron phosphate yellow filter cake, adding phosphoric acid and alkali liquor, washing, filtering, taking filter residues to obtain a basic ammonium iron phosphate filter cake, and drying to obtain basic ammonium iron phosphate crystal powder; and roasting, dehydrating and cooling the basic ammonium ferric phosphate crystal powder to obtain the iron phosphate. According to the invention, recycled ferrophosphorus waste is used as a raw material, amorphous iron phosphate is precipitated by adopting alkali liquor, and ammonia water and phosphoric acid are used as an aging agent under a high-temperature stirring condition, so that the purpose of controllable crystallization of basic ammonium ferric phosphate is achieved.