Empowering food security through digital villages: mechanisms, regional heterogeneity and policy insights from China

Abstract

Introduction:

Food security constitutes a fundamental pillar of national development. Digital-village construction (DVC) plays a critical role in enhancing food security levels (FSL), yet the full scope of its impacts has not been comprehensively examined.

Methods:

This study uses panel data from 31 Chinese provinces from 2011 to 2023 and employs a two-way fixed effects model to evaluate the effects of DVC on FSL and its spatial impacts.

Results:

The results indicate that DVC significantly improves local FSL, with particularly strong effects in major grain-producing regions. However, the cross-regional spillover of these effects remains limited. The mechanism analysis shows that this effect operates through two primary channels: agricultural technology training coverage and land productivity, with government scale playing a positive moderating role.

Discussion:

Based on these findings, regionally differentiated promotion mechanisms should be established. Prioritizing digital literacy cultivation, enhancing agricultural digital service capacity, improving platform-based data coordination systems, and strengthening fiscal support with performance-oriented governance are essential steps.

1 Introduction

The global food security issue has shifted from phase-based shortages to systemic vulnerability under multiple shocks. The Global Food Crisis Report points out that conflict, economic shocks, extreme weather, and forced displacement continue to exacerbate global food insecurity and malnutrition (). In this uncertain context, traditional factor input and expansion-based production models face limitations, and building resilience in the global food system is urgent. To address this challenge, digital transformation is often seen as an opportunity to enable sustainable futures in agriculture and rural areas (), providing support for improving the resilience of food security systems and optimizing production efficiency. However, food security systems remain constrained by traditional measurement paradigms and policy logic, and this lag is weakening their resilience. How to establish an effective connection between digital transformation and food security systems, and whether digitalization can truly enhance the security and sustainability of food systems, has become a key issue to resolve. China’s practice provides a unique real-world example for this issue. As the largest developing country in the world, China has continuously promoted multiple institutional and policy explorations in agriculture and rural areas. In 2019, China proposed the implementation of the “Digital Village Strategy,” becoming an important practice for the concentrated promotion of digital transformation in the agricultural and rural sectors (). Digital-village construction (DVC) represents a new trajectory of agricultural and rural modernization (), the digital technologies it deploys are widely viewed as a key driving force for improving agricultural productivity and fostering high-quality development (). In this context, China’s DVC is both a leading global experiment in digital transformation and provides an observable institutional setting to identify how digitalization enhances food security levels (FSL), offering valuable insights for other developing countries.

Existing literature has developed a substantial body of research around the two broad themes of food security and digital villages. However, studies that explicitly integrate these two strands remain relatively limited. In the field of food security research, traditional studies have predominantly focused on quantitative security, with most analyses characterizing food production conditions using single indicators such as total grain output or yield per unit area (; ; ). Only a small number of studies have incorporated total volume, structural balance, ecological sustainability, and quality security within a unified analytical framework (; ). Although existing research has expanded measurement approaches to food security, quantity-oriented perspectives continue to dominate, and a comprehensive and systematic framework has yet to be established. In addition, increasing attention has been paid to the effects of external factors such as climate change, agricultural insurance, labor prices and demographic structure, and industrial integration on food security (; ; ; ). With respect to research on digital villages, most studies have centered on the digital economy and examined its role in promoting green agriculture, farmland protection, rural industries, and common prosperity (; ; ; ; ). The development of the digital economy is widely regarded as a key factor in enhancing the resilience of food systems (), while the application of digital technologies can effectively increase grain yields through improvements in service provision, field management, and agricultural mechanization (). Existing studies have also confirmed the positive effects of digital industrial development and digital service capacity on agricultural ecological efficiency (). Although digital approaches have demonstrated considerable potential in improving agricultural productivity and safeguarding food security, most studies remain focused on the effects of the digital economy, thereby overlooking the systemic relationship between DVC and FSL.

In summary, existing research still has three main limitations: first, most studies simplify FSL indicators to quantitative security, a single measurement approach that is insufficient for explaining the structural vulnerability of production systems in the context of digitalization. This may affect the scientific accuracy and precision of policies. Second, existing research primarily focuses on the impact of the digital economy and digital technologies on agriculture, neglecting the role of DVC from the perspective of macro-level institutions and service environments. Furthermore, some studies commonly use unified digital indicators for urban and rural areas, lacking detailed characterization of the digital features at the rural level. As a result, the dual-indicator system of DVC and FSL remains underdeveloped. Third, relevant research often stops at verifying the superficial correlation between digital technologies and food security, lacking in-depth analysis of the mechanisms, spatial effects, and regional differences between the two. The intrinsic logic of how DVC enhances FSL through infrastructure improvement and optimization of public services has yet to be fully explained.

In light of this, based on panel data from 31 provinces in China from 2011 to 2023, this paper systematically analyzes the impact of DVC on FSL and further deepens the study of its impact mechanisms, spatial effects, heterogeneity, and moderating effects. The potential contributions of this study are as follows: First, it improves the measurement system by constructing a dual-dimensional evaluation system for DVC and FSL, tailored to rural characteristics, providing a tool reference for related empirical research. Second, it deepens the mechanism analysis by breaking through the superficial analysis in existing studies, addressing the shortcomings in the literature regarding the explanation of the mechanisms of agricultural technology training coverage and land productivity. Third, from a spatial perspective, this paper identifies the spatial correlation of food security and introduces spatial econometric methods to supplement the baseline results. It further combines regional location, functional positioning, and quantile regression analysis to systematically describe the spatial differences and heterogeneity in the impact of DVC on FSL, thereby enriching the study of the boundary conditions of DVC’s empowering effects. Fourth, it empirically tests the positive moderating effect of government scale, clarifying the collaborative empowerment logic between DVC and government agricultural fiscal investment, providing new empirical evidence for related fields.

The remainder of this paper is structured as follows: Section 2 constructs the theoretical analysis framework and presents the research hypotheses; Section 3 introduces the data sources and research design; Section 4 presents the empirical results and analysis; Section 5 provides an extended discussion; Section 6 discusses the research findings; Section 7 concludes with the main conclusions, policy recommendations, and a summary of the research limitations.

2 Theoretical framework and research hypotheses

In the context of digital transformation, DVC is not simply a technological investment, but rather a systematic embedding of information technologies such as big data, the Internet of Things, and artificial intelligence into agricultural production, rural life, and grassroots governance processes. It represents an important form of agricultural and rural informatization development in the new era. DVC promotes the deep integration of informational elements with traditional agricultural factors, systematically improving the technical conditions and operational environment for rural digital development. This paper systematically analyzes the impact of DVC on FSL from three perspectives: direct effects, intermediary mechanisms, and moderating effects, and proposes the research hypotheses.

2.1 The direct effect of DVC on FSL

In the context of digital transformation, DVC improves the overall security of the food system by reallocating informational elements and optimizing the institutional environment, which enhances information efficiency and the way resources are allocated, ultimately optimizing the operation logic of food production and supply systems. From the perspective of information economics, agricultural production generally suffers from information asymmetry and high information search costs, leading to distorted resource allocation and reduced production efficiency. Rural digitalization significantly improves production decision-making efficiency by reducing information acquisition and transmission costs and increasing information transparency ().

First, agricultural informatization constitutes a core driving force in the evolution of modern agricultural production systems. By embedding digital technologies into production processes, it reshapes information transmission and decision making structures within agricultural production (; ). As a fundamental pillar of DVC, digital infrastructure functions not only as the physical carrier of information flows but also as a prerequisite for the integration of digital technologies into production systems. Improvements in rural network coverage, data collection terminals, and information sensing facilities enable digital technologies to be embedded throughout grain production, management, and circulation processes, facilitating a shift from experience based to data-oriented production. On the one hand, enhanced digital infrastructure substantially reduces information acquisition and transaction costs and mitigates the information asymmetry that is pervasive in agricultural production (). This allows farmers to more promptly access information on climatic conditions, production environments, and market signals, thereby reducing uncertainty in production decisions, optimizing input allocation, and enhancing the stability and sustainability of grain production. On the other hand, the integration of digital technologies into production processes under improved infrastructure conditions increases precision and controllability, reduces resource waste and environmental pressure, and improves the stability of grain output while simultaneously accounting for ecological constraints and structural coordination.

Second, building upon the strengthened technical foundation provided by digital infrastructure, DVC further promotes FSL through digital services. Grain production inherently relies on the input of key factors, including labor, capital, and technology. By leveraging the inclusive effects of digital technologies, DVC expands access to credit resources and information channels for small scale producers (), enabling farmers to dynamically adjust input structures during the production process, enhance their capacity to respond to external shocks, and improve the stability of the grain production system. Capital constitutes a critical support for grain production activities, and digital inclusive finance alleviates financing constraints faced by farmers by virtue of its digital and inclusive characteristics, thereby effectively safeguarding food security (). Technology represents another important driving force, as agricultural technological innovation accelerates the transition toward green agricultural development, promotes resource saving and environmentally friendly production, and enhances the ecological security of grain production (). Through information feedback and service coordination mechanisms, digital services guide the rational allocation of production factors, mitigate risks of structural imbalance, and strengthen the overall resilience of the food system.

Taken together, DVC can reinforce FSL through a mechanism chain encompassing information efficiency enhancement, factor optimization, and improvements in system resilience. Accordingly, Hypothesis 1 is proposed.

H1: DVC has a significant positive effect on FSL.

2.2 Indirect effects of DVC on FSL

DVC not only exerts a direct effect on FSL but also generates indirect effects by alleviating key constraints in grain production. In the production process, the achievement of FSL is often jointly constrained by technological limitations arising from insufficient farmers’ capacity to absorb technology and by factor constraints resulting from low efficiency in land factor allocation. By improving the information environment and the conditions for digital technology development, DVC provides critical support for relaxing these constraints. Based on this logic, this paper selects agricultural technology training coverage and land productivity as mediating variables to characterize the transmission pathways through which DVC influences FSL by easing technological and factor constraints.

First, by integrating information platforms with educational systems, DVC enhances both the breadth and effectiveness of agricultural technology training, thereby alleviating technological constraints in grain production. According to information economics theory, the diffusion of the internet facilitates information exchange among governments, research institutions, and social organizations, improving the efficiency of knowledge dissemination (). However, in developing countries, farmers commonly face knowledge gaps, particularly in pesticide application and pest and disease identification, and grain production decisions often rely on experience based judgment (; ; ), which increases production risk. Although agricultural information infrastructure has continued to improve, disparities persist in farmers’ capacity to access and utilize information, especially among emerging agricultural operators (). Farmer behavior theory suggests that technology adoption is primarily driven by expected benefit maximization, while the positive externalities associated with the digital attributes of DVC improve the decision environment for technology adoption by reducing information search costs and replication costs (). Digital platforms not only lower training costs but also enable more precise matching of technical guidance. Existing studies show that improvements in farmers’ digital literacy significantly strengthen their sustainable cultivation practices (). Taken together, DVC mitigates technological constraints in grain production by expanding agricultural technology training coverage, thereby enhancing FSL.

Second, DVC alleviates factor constraints in grain production by promoting the flow and intensive utilization of land factors, thereby improving land productivity. According to induced technical change theory, agricultural technological progress is not exogenously determined, but is jointly induced by factor endowment structures and market demands (). When land factors are relatively scarce or large-scale operations are continuously advanced, technological progress will be directed towards improving land productivity. DVC accelerates the adoption of land-saving and efficiency-enhancing agricultural technologies by improving digital infrastructure and the technological application environment, allowing technological progress to better align with land resource constraints. In this process, the application of digital technologies in production enhances the precision and efficiency of land use. For example, automated machinery and autonomous operating systems improve field operation efficiency, reducing labor and resource consumption (). At the same time, digital technologies accelerate the dissemination of agricultural technologies, enabling high-yield technologies and high-quality varieties to be applied more quickly in frontline production. Furthermore, the flow of information through the internet promotes rural land transfers, improving land use efficiency and the level of large-scale operations (; ). Under the combined influence of digital technologies and the institutional environment, land factors are allocated more efficiently, thus strengthening food security.

Taken together, DVC indirectly promotes FSL through knowledge diffusion and factor reallocation effects. Accordingly, Hypothesis 2 is proposed.

H2: DVC enhances FSL by improving agricultural technology training coverage and increasing land productivity.

2.3 Moderating effect of government scale in the process of DVC influencing FSL

In the process of DVC promoting FSL, government actions play a critical institutional moderating role. According to public economics and agricultural policy theory, government size is not only associated with public resource allocation capacity, but also affects the coordination efficiency between digital infrastructure and the grain production system. When the proportion of government fiscal expenditure to GDP is high, it indicates that the public sector has greater input and regulatory capacity in the agricultural and rural sectors. The government’s role in resource provision, institutional protection, and policy incentives will significantly amplify the marginal effects of DVC ().

Under the same level of DVC, differences in government scale will influence the actual effectiveness of DVC implementation through fiscal input capacity. From a mechanism perspective, fiscal expansion enhances the construction of rural digital infrastructure, providing the necessary resource conditions for DVC to impact FSL. Studies have shown that government agricultural expenditure is positively correlated with agricultural output and food security (; ). In China, agricultural fiscal expenditure mainly focuses on farmland water conservancy, agricultural technology, and infrastructure construction (), which helps improve digital infrastructure such as rural internet, meteorological monitoring, and data services. The promotion of agriculture and food security through digitalization is institutionally dependent, and its effectiveness partially depends on government fiscal capacity and governance levels (). Strengthened fiscal support lowers the barriers to the application of digital technologies, accelerating the extension of agricultural informatization to the grassroots level, thereby improving the implementation efficiency of DVC in the field of grain production. Through subsidies and other fiscal support for agriculture, government departments promote the substitution of labor by agricultural machinery, increasing mechanization levels and food production efficiency (). A larger government scale can facilitate multi-party coop