Impact of agricultural digitization on the economic resilience of agriculture

Agricultural digitization is an inevitable choice for the modernization of agriculture and rural areas, and is an important driving force in promoting the economic resilience of agriculture. Using panel data from 30 provinces in China (autonomous regions and municipalities, excluding the Xizang Autonomous Region, Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan) from 2012 to 2022, a comprehensive index system for evaluating the agricultural digitization and the economic resilience of agriculture was constructed, and the development level of both was estimated using the entropy method. On this basis, bidirectional fixed-effect, adjustment effect, and threshold effect models were constructed to empirically test the influence of digitization on the economic resilience of agriculture. The following observations were made: First, the improvement of agricultural digitization can promote improvement of its economic resilience, with the promotion effects of agricultural digitization being higher in major grain-producing areas than in non-major grain-producing areas as well as in the eastern regions than that in the central and western regions. Second, the consumption structure upgradation of rural residents has strengthened the promotion effect of agricultural digitalization on the economic resilience of agriculture. Third, the digital inclusive finance has a threshold effect on the improvement of agricultural digitization to promote the economic resilience of agriculture. In summary, to improve the economic resilience of agriculture and facilitate its high-quality development, decision makers should consider paying attention to the enabling effect of agricultural digitalization on the economic resilience of agriculture as well as the regional heterogeneity of such impact, strengthening the moderating effect of the consumption structure upgradation of rural residents, and vigorously developing digital inclusive finance.