Digital Economy and High-Quality Agricultural Development: Mechanisms of Technological Innovation and Spatial Spillover Effects

The digital economy has become a transformative force in modern agriculture, reshaping production methods and driving global sustainable development. Using panel data from 30 provinces in China from 2012 to 2022, this paper constructs a comprehensive econometric framework using the generalized method of moments and the spatial Durbin models to reveal the mediating role of technological innovation and the existence of spatial spillover effects. The results show that (1) under different regression models, the digital economy significantly promotes the high-quality development of agriculture, which is still valid after the robustness test; (2) the digital economy improves innovation input, output, and efficiency to promote the dissemination of new agricultural technologies and the improvement of resource utilization, thus speeding up the process of high-quality agricultural development; (3) the impact of the development of the digital economy on the high-quality development of agriculture has a positive spillover effect between different provinces in China; and (4) the impact of the digital economy is more significant in areas with stronger intellectual property protection and a larger urban–rural income gap. These insights highlight the need to develop policies that strengthen digital infrastructure and foster technological innovation to maximize the benefits of digital transformation in agriculture.