Digital intelligence enables agricultural industry resilience: theoretical mechanism and empirical test

Enhancing the resilience of the agricultural industry is a crucial strategic measure to activate the endogenous driving force of agriculture, ensure national food security, and stabilize the operation of the national economy. Based on panel data from 30 provinces in China from 2011 to 2021, this paper uses the entropy method to measure the resilience of the agricultural industry and the level of digital intelligence, combined with fixed effects, mediating effects, and spatial econometric models to systematically explore the impact of digital intelligence development on the resilience of the agricultural industry and its internal transmission mechanism. The research results show that digital intelligence development significantly enhances the resilience of the agricultural industry, and the conclusion remains valid after robustness testing. Mechanistically, digital intelligence empowers the construction of agricultural industry resilience through two pathways: "optimization of agricultural industrial structure" and "integration of urban and rural development." Regional heterogeneity reveals that digital intelligence exhibits distinct spatial differentiation in its impact on agricultural industry resilience, with more significant effects in central and eastern regions, while western regions lag behind relatively. Spatial econometric analysis further confirms that digital intelligence has a positive spatial spillover effect on agricultural industry resilience, where improvements in digital intelligence levels in neighboring regions can effectively enhance local resilience. Accordingly, efforts should focus on consolidating the construction of digital intelligence infrastructure and accelerating the digital transformation of traditional agriculture; optimizing transmission mechanisms to fully unleash the potential of digital intelligence empowerment; implementing precise and differentiated policies to strengthen regional coordinated development and collaboration, thereby collectively enhancing the resilience of the national agricultural industry.