Gender-Inclusive Digital Literacy and Socioeconomic Resilience Among Smallholder Farmers: The Moderating Role of Trust in Technology in Food-Insecure Regions

Smallholder farmers in food-insecure regions face structural constraints that undermine household resilience, including gender disparities, limited digital access, and low trust in technology. This study develops and tests the Gender-Inclusive Digital Literacy for Women Empowerment (GIDL-WE) model to examine how gender inclusion, digital literacy, and trust in technology interact to influence socioeconomic resilience. Using survey data from 350 women in smallholder farming households in Central Kalimantan, Indonesia, the research employs Partial Least Squares–Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) for analysis. Results indicate that gender inclusion significantly enhances inclusive digital literacy (β = 0.285, p < 0.000), while digital literacy unexpectedly exerts a negative effect on socioeconomic resilience (β = –0.217, p < 0.000). Trust in technology has moderates the digital literacy–resilience link (β = 0.176, p < 0.000), suggesting that digital literacy yields benefits only when supported by high trust levels. The model explains 28.3% of the variance in socioeconomic resilience and demonstrates a satisfactory global fit (GoF = 0.39). These findings highlight the centrality of trust as a catalyst for translating digital inclusion into resilience, offering empirical insights for designing gender-responsive digital interventions in agriculture.