Propagating Agricultural Tools in the Mao Era

Image of agricultural tools from Xu Guohua 许国华 and Liu Jiansheng 刘健生, Tuolaji he lianhe shougeji (拖拉机和联合收割机) (Beijing: Zhonghua quanguo kexue jishu puji xiehui, 1954), 32-33. — From: Xu Guohua 许国华 and Liu Jiansheng 刘健生, Tuolaji he lianhe shougeji (拖拉机和联合收割机) (Beijing: Zhonghua quanguo kexue jishu puji xiehui, 1954), 32-33.

15. May 2022

The application of various technologies for plowing, harrowing, sowing and harvesting were propagated as better tools than manual labor particularly in the early years of the PRC. In a very obvious way the superiority of tractors in agricultural production is acknowledged in the image here. While a single peasant can dig up 0.2 mu (1 mu equals 0,165 acre) in ten hours by use of a manual hoe, the Soviet DT-54 tractor (54 hp engine, built from 1949 to 1979) with its five plowshares can plow 100 mu in the same time, representing an increase by the factor 500. The increases in harrowing, sowing and harvesting are similar and became during the Mao era (especially in the Great Leap Forward phase) an inherent part of the science dissemination propaganda.

See the original post by Prof. Marc Matten on the website The Mao Era in Objects.