With the continuous innovation of agricultural modernization and digitalization technologies, the construction of digital agriculture has become a core topic for agricultural development. Based on the sample data of 31 provincial models(due to the lack of data, the statistical data mentioned here do not include the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, the Macao Special Administrative Region and Taiwan Province)from 2011 to 2022 in China, the entropy weight method was used to measure the index of China’s digital agriculture construction level and an empirical analysis was conducted to verify the impact of fiscal support for agriculture on digital agriculture construction. Furthermore, the mechanism of how the agricultural technological environment affected digital agriculture construction was explored and the threshold effect of urbanization rate was examined. The study finds that fiscal support for agriculture can significantly promote the level of China’s digital agriculture construction, and this conclusion holds in various robustness tests. Moreover, the agricultural technological environment positively moderates the development of digital agriculture in China. The exploratory analysis shows that fiscal support for agriculture has a particularly significant promotion effect on the digital agriculture construction of the eastern region. The threshold effect analysis reveals the differential impact of urbanization rate on digital agriculture construction. The interactive relationship and future trend between fiscal support for agriculture and digital agriculture construction are summarized, and development suggestions of strengthening policy coordination, promoting technological innovation, and promoting deep integration of agriculture and digitalization are put forward, aiming to provide reference and guidance for the sustainable development of China’s agriculture.

financial support for agriculture  /  digital agriculture construction  /  agricultural modernization  /  threshold effect