IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jagris/v15y2025i9p978-d1646836.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Does Digital Village Construction Affect the Sustainable Intensification of Cultivated Land Use? Evidence from Rural China

Author

Listed:
  • Hui Yang

    (College of Public Administration, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing 210095, China)

  • Jingye Li

    (School of Public Administration, Hohai University, Nanjing 211100, China
    Nanjing Institute of Geography and Limnology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing 210008, China)

  • Stefan Sieber

    (Leibniz Centre for Agricultural Landscape Research, 15374 Müncheberg, Germany
    Department of Agricultural Economics, Humboldt University of Berlin, 10117 Berlin, Germany)

  • Kaisheng Long

    (College of Public Administration, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing 210095, China)

Abstract

Digital village construction (DVC) is a crucial pathway for increasing farmland productivity, reducing agricultural waste, and ultimately achieving sustainable development goals (SDGs). However, its effects on the sustainable intensification of cultivated land use (SICLU) remain unclear. To bridge this gap, this study investigated the impact effects and mechanisms of DVC on SICLU across 358 counties in China using ordinary least squares and mediating effect models. The results showed the following: (1) DVC and its four sub-indices had significant and positive impacts on SICLU, which were validated through a series of robustness tests. (2) Heterogeneity analysis showed that DVC significantly improved SICLU in the eastern and central regions, as well as in regions with abundant and relatively scarce resource endowments, whereas no such effect was observed in the western region. (3) The relationship between DVC and SICLU was mediated by farmers’ income, technological innovation, and agricultural informatization. These insights highlight the importance of accelerating DVC to enhance SICLU.

Suggested Citation

  • Hui Yang & Jingye Li & Stefan Sieber & Kaisheng Long, 2025. "Does Digital Village Construction Affect the Sustainable Intensification of Cultivated Land Use? Evidence from Rural China," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 15(9), pages 1-24, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jagris:v:15:y:2025:i:9:p:978-:d:1646836
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/15/9/978/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/15/9/978/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jagris:v:15:y:2025:i:9:p:978-:d:1646836. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.