The project, involving 1.4-square-kilometers of paddy fields in Yanbian, generates average annual sales revenue of 14 million yuan and has lifted 2,195 low-income people out of poverty.

Learning from the success of the paddy-sharing project, Ningbo and Yanbian are promoting the method for other agricultural products as well, such as livestock, poultry and medical herbs.

Further, the city is helping Yanbian, which is adjacent to Russia and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, to further tap the cross-border e-commerce sector, helping the prefecture fully exert its geographic advantage as a foreign trade port city.

Ningbo Haishangxian Information Technology Co Ltd, a B2B trading platform for seafood businesses, has joined hands with the government and seafood processing and trading companies in Hunchun, a county-level city only 15 kilometers from the Sea of Japan and 4 kilometers from Posyet Bay in Russia, to help solve problems related to financing, online platforms and raw materials purchasing.

The Ningbo company is helping expand the domestic market for seafood products that Hunchun enterprises have imported from Russia and has also explored marketing and sales channels to Japan, the Republic of Korea, Europe and North America based on its internet technologies and platforms.

Moreover, Haishangxian is trying to help Hunchun make the fishery industry smarter by applying intelligent technologies in the management systems inside companies there.

Yu Guobin, general manager of Yanbian Shenghai Industry and Trade Co Ltd, said cooperation with Haishangxian is helping expand channels for sales of their seafood products and the purchase of raw materials. The cooperation is estimated to have contributed more than 20 million yuan in trade value to the Yanbian company.

Qin Jirong contributed to this story.