The impact of high standard farmland construction on China’s agricultural resilience

High-standard farmland construction (HSFC) is a crucial strategy for strengthening China’s agricultural infrastructure and promoting agroeconomic growth. Agricultural resilience (AR)—the capacity of the agricultural system to maintain core functions and recover from external shocks—is a key indicator of sustainable rural development. This study develops an index system to measure AR using the Drivers-Pressures-State-Impacts-Responses (DPSIR) framework and panel data from 28 provinces (2011–2022). Employing fixed-effects and mediation models, we find that HSFC significantly enhances AR—especially in major grain-producing and northeastern regions—while the effects are weaker in the west and statistically insignificant in the east and non-major grain-producing regions. HSFC improves AR mainly by boosting labor productivity and increasing farmers’ incomes, with income growth as the primary driver. However, by accelerating rural urbanization, HSFC may also contribute to population outflow, which can hinder resilience gains. This research demonstrates the value of the DPSIR approach for systematically exploring how HSFC affects AR through productivity, income, and urbanization mechanisms, and offers policy insights for targeted resource allocation and sustainable agricultural management.