Jin Maofang (Photo/Xinhua)

86-year-old Jin Maofang, a first-generation female tractor driver in China since the founding of the People’s Republic of China, recently got to try out one of the country’s most advanced tractors and was amazed by the cutting-edge agricultural machinery, xinhuanet.com reported on Oct. 23.

“I never imagined that I would have the chance to ‘drive’ such a terrific tractor,” Jin said, laughing like a child while looking over the machine.

“I had to implement 12 kg of force to move the control lever of the STALIN-80 tractor I used to drive. Now our domestic tractors are amazing,” exclaimed Jin, who was selected to be a tractor driver when she was 19 thanks to her strong frame and agility.

Devoted to her job, Jin plowed tirelessly all-year-round, resolving to change the Gobi Desert into farmland. She completed tasks set for the next 20 years in just seven, and was awarded the title of “national model worker” and received by late Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai.

Moreover, as Jin became a representative of outstanding Chinese women, the image of her driving a tractor was printed on the one-yuan banknote of the 1960 edition of the Chinese renminbi.

A one yuan note of the 1960 edition of the renminbi

After so many years, standing by the cotton fields in Shihezi City, northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, Jin was pleased to see her work in the fields is now handled by a cutting-edge agricultural tractor equipped with GPS, automatic shift system, and even air-conditioning in the driver’s cab.

Besides tractors, other agricultural machinery has also been implemented in farmlands.

In Xinjiang, high-power and high-performance agricultural equipment for multiple operations are rapidly upgrading. According to official statistics, the mechanization rate of Xinjiang’s cotton farming has exceeded 80 percent.

Thanks to favorable government policies on agricultural machinery subsidies and the popularization of new agricultural machinery-related technologies, a significant amount of smart equipment has been adopted in various agrarian production links in Xinjiang.

By the end of this year, drones for plant protection in Xinjiang will amount to 5,000, with the area of operation expected to reach 40 million mu (about 2.7 million hectares).