New quality productive forces are the fundamental driving force for the progress of human civilization. To deeply explore the relationship between new quality productive forces and agricultural modernization, data from 30 provinces in China from 2011 to 2022 were selected to construct the index system of new quality productive forces and agricultural modernization, carry out scientific measurement, and conduct empirical analysis using the fixed effect model. The results show that new quality productivity can significantly promote agricultural modernization. The new quality productive force has a significant effect on the modernization of agriculture in the eastern, middle, and western regions of China, but the effect is more prominent in the middle and western areas. New productive forces are significantly and positively associated with agricultural modernization in both main grain-producing and non-main grain-producing areas, but the effect is greater in main grain-producing areas. The upgrading of the agricultural industrial structure plays a mediating effect between new productive forces and agricultural modernization. There is a single-threshold effect of the new productive forces empowering agricultural modernization. Accordingly, to better utilize new productive forces to empower agricultural modernization, we should fully activate the talent engine and cultivate modern “new farmers”; strive to build efficient agriculture by taking scientific and technological innovation as the driving force; and promote the sustainable development of agriculture by taking agricultural green production as the orientation.

Digital transformation is conducive to food security. This paper constructed an index system of the digitization level of the grain industry chain based on the panel data of 30 provinces in China from 2011 to 2022. It adopted the entropy method to measure it and analyzed the law of its spatial–temporal evolution. It was found that the digitization level of China’s grain industry chain has shown a year-on-year growth trend, and, at the same time, there are spatial spillover effects and spatial heterogeneity. Analyzed by Theil’s index, there were evident differences among the four major regions and three major grain functional areas in China, and the differences mainly originated from within the region, and there was a phenomenon of “digital divide”. The digitalization level of China’s grain industry chain has shown a decreasing trend of “East-Middle-West”. In conclusion, this paper proposes practical countermeasures to facilitate the digitization level of the grain industry chain in China, thereby providing developing countries with a reference value for the digital transformation of the grain industry chain. Therefore, we should promote the construction of digital infrastructure, increase the cultivation of digital talents, coordinate regional development, and accelerate the digital transformation of the grain industry chain.

Digital transformation of the grain industrial chain is a critical pillar for safeguarding national food security. Currently, the Chinese government attaches great importance to fostering new quality productive forces in agriculture and has provided robust policy support for the digital transformation of the grain industrial chain. However, the willingness of various stakeholders along the chain to undergo digital transformation remains highly uneven, leading to an increasingly prominent contradiction between the national goal of building a powerful grain industry and the practical challenges faced by micro-entities: reluctance to transform, fear of transformation, and lack of capacity to transform. This paper explores the mitigation path of this contradiction from the perspective of digital peer effects, aiming to provide new insights for advancing the digital transformation of the grain industrial chain. Taking grain-related enterprises listed on the Shanghai and Shenzhen Stock Exchanges of China from 2013 to 2023 as the research sample, this paper empirically tests the existence, heterogeneous characteristics and economic consequences of peer effects in the digital transformation of grain-related enterprises. The results indicate that grain-related enterprises experience significant peer effects with respect to digital transformation, and enterprises of different sizes exhibit heterogeneous responses. The higher the level of economic development and the more sophisticated the financial system in the region where an enterprise is located, the stronger the digital peer effects. These peer effects are significantly associated with reduced operating costs and increased operating revenue. Further analysis reveals that significant digital peer effects are observed among upstream enterprises, while those among midstream and downstream enterprises fail to pass the significance test. The digital transformation of downstream enterprises exerts a significant positive impact on upstream and midstream enterprises, but the reverse impact is not statistically significant. Based on these results, we propose strengthening cross-segment coordination, communication, and knowledge-sharing within the grain industrial chain to amplify peer-driven digital spillovers and raise overall chain-wide digitalization.