A teenage farmer in southwest China's Chongqing Municipality has mastered much about smart farming machinery and aspires to become an agricultural expert on both tools, particularly drones, and techniques.

Xiao Yin, 19 years old, is already a professional drone pilot with four years of experience.

The young professional drone pilot discovered his passion in 2021, when he found a parallel between drone operations and video games, which motivated him to switch his major from accounting to drone piloting at the vocational education center of Chongqing's Liangping District.

"We use two thumbs to operate drones, just like we do in playing video games. So, I think piloting drones is like playing video games," Xiao said.

Xiao also learned how to drive tractors, rotary tillers and many other types of farming machinery at school.

Since his graduation from the vocational education center last year, Xiao has provided drone services on more than 3,300 hectares of farmland.

"Xiao definitely qualifies as a mature new-generation farmer now. He is very competent in both crop science and agricultural machinery operations," said Li Shifei, Xiao's teacher.

Despite his achievements, Xiao maintains a learner's mindset. He recently mastered the skills to operate unmanned rice transplanters through direct instructions from equipment manufacturers after their introduction at his agricultural cooperative.

Xiao has also applied for continuing education at Sichuan Agricultural University, hoping to become a new-generation farmer who excels at both agricultural machinery and agrotechnology.

"To my parents, agriculture is weeding the fields every day. To me, agriculture is modern. There's still a large development space in agriculture, so my career has the same potential as working in factory. I know if I want to become an agricultural expert, I need to learn and ask questions to lay a solid foundation, which will ebable me to better serve the crop growers in the future," Xiao said.