The impact of digital financial inclusion on agricultural supply chain resilience: does digital access divide matter

Amid growing global uncertainties, agricultural supply chain resilience (ASCR) is vital to national economic stability. Although supply chain resilience has been widely studied, the role of digital financial inclusion (DFI), particularly as moderated by the digital access divide, remains underexplored. To address this gap, this study leverages Chinese provincial data to investigate how DFI strengthens ASCR and the moderating role of the digital access divide. We find that DFI significantly enhances ASCR by improving supply chain integration and increasing credit accessibility. It also boosts all three resilience dimensions–emergency response, recovery, and transformation–with the strongest impact on transformation. However, while DFI shows strong positive effects in the eastern region, its impact is limited in central-western regions. Critically, the digital access divide significantly diminishes benefits of DFI. These findings highlight the urgency of bridging this divide to unlock full potential of DFI. This study advances the theoretical understanding of DFI and supply chain resilience and offers practical insights for optimizing rural financial services, formulating differentiated regional policies, and enhancing ASCR.