Digital rural construction, resource mismatch, and rural land use efficiency

Introduction With the acceleration of the allocation of agricultural resource elements in agricultural development, the relationship between digital rural construction and rural land use efficiency has become increasingly close. Methods In order to explore the impact and underlying mechanism of digital rural construction on rural land use efficiency, this paper constructs an evaluation system index for China's digital rural construction and uses the SBM-GML model to measure rural land use efficiency. Based on this, data from 30 provinces in China from 2010 to 2022 are used to test it using fixed effects and mediation effects models. Results (1) The construction of digital rural areas can directly promote the improvement of rural land use efficiency. This conclusion still holds true after endogeneity and robustness tests. (2) Mechanism analysis shows that digital rural construction can alleviate the mismatch of land resources, capital resources, and labor resources, thereby indirectly promoting the improvement of rural land use efficiency. (3) Heterogeneity analysis shows that the construction of digital rural areas has a more significant driving effect on the efficiency of rural land use in eastern and southern regions of China, as well as in major grain producing and selling areas. Discussion This article suggests continuing to promote the development strategy of digital rural construction, improving the problem of resource mismatch, and paying attention to the regional imbalance of digital rural construction. It is necessary to maintain the leading position of “first mover advantage” areas and also pay attention to filling the gaps in “later mover advantage” areas, in order to comprehensively promote the further improvement of rural land use efficiency.