The adoption of digital agricultural technology by family farms is a powerful means to promote the modernization of agriculture and rural areas in China, and an important way to promote the transformation of China from a large agricultural country to a strong agricultural country. Nation policy is an important factor affecting the adoption of digital agricultural technology by family farmers, but the personal ability of family farmers is also a key factor that cannot be ignored. This study established a logical framework for the adoption behavior of digital agricultural technology in family farms, including ‘ability-orientation’ and ‘policyorientation’, and used structural equation model to conduct an empirical analysis of 1 221 survey samples. The results show that the individual ability of family farmers (0.625), including equipment operation ability and digital security ability, is the active factor affecting the adoption behavior of digital agricultural technology. The area of cultivated land (0.216) has a significant positive impact on adoption behavior, policy orientation (0.283) includes incentives, guidance and constraints, and has the least impact on technology adoption behavior. Therefore, the government and relevant departments should focus on cultivating the individual ability of family farmers and developing moderate scale operation when formulating and introducing relevant policies, so as to improve the scientificity and feasibility of policies.