Digitalizing for resilience

The enhancement of farmers’ livelihood resilience is the key to the implementation of the comprehensive rural revitalization strategy, the realization of the common prosperity goal, and the consolidation of poverty alleviation achievements. Farmers’ participation in the digital economy is essential to enhancing the resilience of their livelihoods. This paper uses the China Household Finance Survey data in 2017, 2019, 2021 and 2023 to examine the impact of farmers’ digital economic participation on their livelihood resilience and the mechanism. The results of the study show that farmers’ digital economy participation behavior in the digital era has a significantly positive impact on their livelihood resilience level. In the process of participation in digital economic activities, farmers not only enhance their production capacity through the increase of agricultural assets in intertemporal decision-making, but also optimize their labor allocation through entrepreneurial activities, and broaden their income sources through the improvement of the effectiveness of the financial asset portfolio, which in turn enhances their level of livelihood resilience. Heterogeneity analysis reveals that farmers’ engagement behaviors in digital life, digital production, and digital finance all have significant enhancement effects on their livelihood resilience. This study provides recommendations for the construction of sustainable livelihood strategies for farmers, the improvement of digital village construction policies, and the advancement of the comprehensive rural revitalization strategy in the new era.