FinTech Access and Climate-Resilient Agricultural Investment: Evidence from Smallholder Farmers in Pakistan

Access to appropriate finance is central to smallholder agricultural adaptation, but the relationships among digital financial access, financial inclusion, and financial literacy remain insufficiently examined. This study examined the association between FinTech access and climate-resilient agricultural investment, assessing financial inclusion as a mediator and financial literacy as a moderator. A quantitative cross-sectional survey collected data from 384 smallholder farmers in Mardan, Charsadda, and Nowshera districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. Respondents were predominantly male (91.4%); therefore, the findings primarily reflect male farmers’ experiences and cannot be generalized to female-headed smallholder operations without dedicated gender-disaggregated sampling. Multiple regression, bootstrapped mediation, and interaction analyses tested hypothesized relationships, controlling for socioeconomic and farming characteristics. FinTech access was positively associated with both investment and financial inclusion. Financial inclusion retained a positive association with investment after adjustment and partially mediated the access–investment relationship, with an indirect effect of 0.222 (95% bootstrap confidence interval: 0.158–0.292), accounting for approximately 57.5% of the total association. Financial literacy positively moderates the association between FinTech access and investment (B = 0.137, p = 0.001), with stronger associations observed at higher literacy levels. These findings support the financial capability perspective, highlighting the distinct roles of financial participation and financial knowledge in climate-resilient agricultural investment. The results provide an empirical basis for evaluating integrated initiatives combining digital financial access, appropriate financial products, financial education, and agricultural extension support.