Accurately identifying the stage boundaries and characteristic attributes of agricultural mechanization development is a logical prerequisite for following objective laws and promoting the high-quality development of the industry. This paper took the phased laws of social and economic form evolution as the theoretical foundation of Marxist historical materialism, combined the discussion on the particularity of phased contradictions in On Contradiction, and based on the division standards of agricultural mechanization development stages established in NY/T 1408.1—2007 Evaluation of Agricultural Mechanization Level-Part 1: Crop Cultivation it conducted a systematic stage division and characteristic decomposition of China's 77-year development process of agricultural mechanization from 1949 to 2025, from the two dimensions of production mode transformation and employment structure transformation. The research findings indicated that China's agricultural mechanization had successively gone through the primary stage (from 1949 to 2006), characterized by a focus on the modularization, and the intermediate stage (from 2007 to 2025), characterized by a focus on the full-processization. Currently, it was in a critical transitional period as it was moving towards the advanced stage. The primary stage presented the basic attributes of traditional production methods dominating, partial penetration of mechanization, and a relatively low development rate. The employment structure experienced a historical turning point from "increasing machines and increasing people" to "increasing machines and reducing people". The intermediate stage, driven by institutional supply and policy dividends, achieved a historic leap in the full-process mechanization of major crop production. Mechanized production methods established a dominant position, and the total power of agricultural machinery, the comprehensive production capacity of grain, and agricultural labor productivity all achieved a quantitative leap. The social employment structure completed a fundamental reconfiguration from "one, three, two" to "three, two, one". The advanced stage would be characterized by comprehensive, intelligent, and green as its core indicators, pointing to the coverage of agricultural mechanization in all fields and all links and the empowerment of new quality productive forces in industrial upgrading. This paper verified the scientificity and applicability of the division criteria for the stages of agricultural mechanization, clarifies the historical position that China's agricultural mechanization was about to enter the advanced stage, and could provide theoretical support and decision-making basis for the high-quality development of agricultural machinery equipment in the "15th Five-Year Plan" period and the selection of the path for building an agricultural power.

agricultural mechanization  /  stage division  /  stage characteristics  /  comprehensive mechanization, intelligence, and greening  /  high-quality agricultural development