Enhancing farmers' income is a fundamental prerequisite for achieving the modernization of agriculture and rural areas, however, the tension between smallholder farmers and large markets has hindered income growth among these producers. Nevertheless, the rapid advancement of agricultural industrial organizations presents a significant opportunity to bolster farmers' incomes, although their effectiveness remains to be empirically validated. This paper constructs a theoretical framework for empowering income growth among farmers through organizational participation, grounded in industrial organization theory and game theory models. Utilizing survey data from 687 vegetable growers across Hebei, Shandong, Liaoning, Beijing, and Tianjin provinces, we conduct an empirical analysis of the impact and mechanisms by which organizational participation influences farmers' planting income. The findings indicate that: First, organizational participation exerts a substantial positive effect on farmers' planting income; this result holds robust even after addressing endogeneity problem. Second, organizational participation has a more significant effect on increasing income for the new generation, highly educated individuals, strong social networks, and high-income farmers, exhibiting the "Matthew effect". Third, organizational participation enhances planting income through mechanisms such as facilitating access to technology, obtaining quality certifications, and expanding sales channels. Therefore, it is imperative to promote targeted development of diverse industrial organizations while considering farmer heterogeneity in order to enable equitable sharing of agricultural development benefits.