Enhancing the welfare of relatively poor farmers is crucial for consolidating poverty alleviation efforts and achieving common prosperity. The penetration of digital technology in the agricultural sector offers a key opportunity for this. This paper, based on the data from the “Thousand-villages Survey” of Shanghai University of Finance and Economics in 2023, empirically analyzes the impact of agricultural digital technology on the income of relatively poor farmers, exploring its mechanism for income growth and the heterogeneous effect across different groups. The findings reveal that agricultural digital technology significantly promotes the income growth of relatively poor farmers.

Regarding the income growth mechanism, agricultural digital technology helps relatively poor farmers reduce information search costs, improve land use efficiency, and accelerate the adoption of traditional agricultural technology. Additionally, a comparison of digital dividend distribution between relatively poor and non-poor farmers indicates that the income growth effect is more pronounced for the former, thereby helping to balance income distribution and alleviate internal inequality among farmers. Heterogeneity analysis further finds that agricultural digital technology has a more significant income growth effect for full-time agricultural producers, poverty-alleviation households, and those with lower dependency ratios, but there is still a gap in empowering vulnerable groups. Regional comparisons show that Central China and East China benefit the most from agricultural digital technology, highlighting the importance of regional economic development and digital infrastructure in determining the effectiveness of agricultural digital technology applications. In conclusion, policy formulation should focus on the digital affordability, accessibility, and equity for relatively poor groups, ensuring that all farmers can actively participate in the wave of agricultural digitization and share the digital dividends.