Objective/Meaning Agricultural and rural modernization is the core engine for meeting the people’s ever-growing needs for a better life and for achieving all-round rural revitalization, and digital-village construction injects strong momentum into this process.

Methods/Procedures On the basis of theoretical analysis and using panel data for 31 Chinese provinces over 2011–2023, we apply a panel fixed-effects model, a mediation-effects model and a threshold-effects model to empirically examine the impact and mechanisms of digital-village construction on agricultural and rural modernization.

Results/Conclusions (1) Baseline estimates show that digital-village construction directly promotes agricultural and rural modernization; this result survives a battery of endogeneity and robustness checks. (2) Mediation analysis reveals that agricultural innovation and the modernization of agricultural value chains are two key channels through which digital-village construction empowers modernization. (3) Heterogeneity tests indicate that the empowerment effect is stronger in major grain-consuming regions, in areas with a low marketization index, and in regions with low agricultural labor productivity. (4) Further analysis finds that as farmers’ education rises, the marginal promoting effect of digital-village construction on modernization weakens once education exceeds a certain threshold.