Pathways and countermeasures for agricultural efficiency improvement and farmers' income growth in Shaanxi Province through digital economic empowerment under backdrop of rural comprehensive revitalization

To explore empowerment mechanism and practical effects of digital economy on agricultural efficiency improvement and farmers' income growth, and to facilitate development of agricultural modernization under backdrop of rural comprehensive revitalization, Shaanxi Province was selected as research object．Based on provincial panel data from 2008 to 2024, a digital economic development evaluation index system was constructed including digital infrastructure and agricultural digital applications, while an agricultural development index system covering agricultural efficiency improvement and farmers' income growth was also established．Entropy method was used to calculate comprehensive index for each dimension．A two-way fixed-effects panel regression model was employed to empirically analyze impact paths and marginal effects of digital economy on agricultural efficiency improvement and farmers' income growth in Shaanxi Province．Robustness tests were conducted using variable substitution method．Research results have showed that digital economy drives agricultural efficiency improvement and farmers' income growth in Shaanxi Province through a two-way mechanism involving digital infrastructure and agricultural digital applications, with digital infrastructure serving as a foundational enabling factor and agricultural digital applications as a key enabling factor．Controlling for other variables and fixed effect, each unit increase in level of digital infrastructure can make agricultural efficiency improvement by 36.5% and farmers' income growth by 28.7%, while each unit increase in level of agricultural digital applications can make agricultural efficiency by 46.0% and farmers' income growth by 20.6%．Both digital economy development level and agricultural development quality in Shaanxi Province show a year-on-year growth trend．However, problems such as uneven coverage of digital infrastructure, insufficient sharing of agricultural-related data, and significant regional differences in agricultural digital application levels still persist．Targeted policy countermeasures have been proposed, including continuously improving rural digital infrastructure, deepening integration of digital technology with entire agricultural industrial chain, improving agricultural-related data sharing mechanisms, and strengthening training of rural digital talents．These suggestions provide practical references for digital economic empowerment to agricultural efficiency improvement and farmers' income growth, and to promote agricultural high-quality development．