Has Digital Economy Promoted Sustainable Intensification of Cultivated Land Use?

The expansion of China’s digital economy (DE) has begun to reshape agricultural production in ways that extend beyond efficiency gains, raising important questions about its implications for the long-term sustainable intensification of cultivated land use (SCU). Drawing on panel data from 31 provincial-level regions between 2011 and 2023, this study examines how digital development influences cultivated land sustainability from the perspectives of productivity, resource efficiency, and system resilience. The results indicate that digital advancement is closely associated with higher land productivity and more efficient input use, with digital industrialization playing a particularly pronounced role. Its contribution to land system resilience, however, appears more limited, likely because ecological stability and structural risk-buffering mechanisms respond slowly to technological change. Further analysis suggests that agricultural industrialization (AID) and Rural financing capacity (RFC) function as important transmission channels through which digital development shapes land-use outcomes. Notably, the effects are not uniform. The influence of digital development becomes more evident after 2015, when digital infrastructure and policy support deepened nationwide. Regional differences are also apparent: while the eastern region has already absorbed much of the early digital dividend, stronger marginal gains remain possible in central and western China, where agricultural modernization and digital integration are still unfolding. These findings underscore the importance of strengthening rural digital infrastructure, enhancing farmers’ digital capabilities, and improving digitally enabled financial services to support sustainable land use, particularly in less-developed regions.