Digital Literacy, Institutional Support, and Agricultural Mechanization Adoption: Pathways to Sustainable Rice Farming in Indonesia

Sustainable rice production in Indonesia requires digital skills, machinery, and institutional services. Serdang Bedagai, North Sumatra, provides a major rice-producing setting with land development programs and varied machinery service arrangements. A cross-sectional survey of 340 farmers in seven subdistricts was analyzed using ordinary partial least squares structural equation modeling with 5000 bootstrap resamples. Agricultural mechanization adoption (AMA) and self-reported sustainable rice farming practices (SRF) were composites. Digital literacy (DL) was associated with AMA (β = 0.374, p < 0.001); DL, institutional support (IS), and AMA were associated with SRF (β = 0.234, 0.243, and 0.149). The IS–AMA association was non-significant (β = 0.056, p = 0.386). Removing two digital SRF indicators retained the DL–SRF association (β = 0.240, 95% CI (0.107, 0.377)) and DL → AMA → SRF indirect association (β = 0.063, 95% CI (0.024, 0.113)). The indirect association was non-significant with routine stage count and trial or routine count AMA measures. An exploratory membership comparison for Usaha Pelayanan Jasa Alat dan Mesin Pertanian (UPJA) found a stronger IS–SRF association among members (difference = 0.408, permutation p = 0.006); AMA non-invariance limits interpretation. Digital literacy development, machinery services, and institutional coordination merit integrated attention. Longitudinal evidence and objective measurements are needed to establish sustainability gains.