Resource endowments and entrepreneurial environment matter: how digital infrastructure shapes agricultural technology innovation in China

Digital technology is profoundly reshaping traditional agricultural production, presenting new opportunities to promote agricultural technology innovation. This study aims to elucidate the enhancing effect of digital infrastructure development on agricultural technological innovation and its underlying mechanisms. It regards the “Broadband China” pilot city policy as a quasi-exogenous shock to the development of digital infrastructure. This study employs a panel dataset covering 281 Chinese prefecture-level and above cities from 2011 to 2021. Using a staggered difference-in-differences model, it investigates the impact of digital infrastructure on agricultural technology innovation and its underlying mechanisms. The results indicated that digital infrastructure significantly promotes agricultural technology innovation. This effect exhibits heterogeneity across regions with different resource endowments, entrepreneurial environments, and legal environments. Mechanism analysis reveals that digital infrastructure can accelerate the digital transformation of innovative entities and reduce the cost of legal rights protection, thereby expanding agricultural product sales, increasing innovation revenues, and ultimately stimulating agricultural technology innovation through a “revenue enhancement and cost reduction” effect. Further analysis reveals, on one hand, the positive spatial spillover effects of digital infrastructure construction, and on the other hand, enhancing the level of agricultural technological innovation can strengthen food security capabilities. This study offers a new perspective on understanding the in-depth integration of digital technology with the agricultural industry chain and stimulating agricultural innovation.