Zhu Wenrong poses for a photo with two blue crabs amidst paddy fields in Xiangshan county, Ningbo. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

A trial for the breeding of blue crabs in rice fields carried out by an agricultural enterprise based in Ningbo's Xiangshan county recently has proved successful. 

This is the first time that blue crabs, which commonly live in tidal flats, have been successfully raised in rice fields in China, said Jin Zhongwen, a researcher at the Ningbo Municipal Institute of Ocean and Fisheries.

Ningbo Lihai Agriculture Development Co Ltd, based in Gaoni village, Huangbi'ao township, Xiangshan, initiated the trial program in a 1.5-mu (0.1 hectare) rice field in May.

On Oct 19, Zhu Wenrong, a founder of the agriculture company, led the harvesting of 100 blue crabs from the test field in a single day.

The average weight of the harvested crabs was 161 grams for females and 201 grams for males. All of them are in good condition. 

Zhu estimated that over 300 blue crabs with a combined weight of over 40 kilograms could be harvested in the test field, generating 5,000 to 6,000 yuan ($869.56) in income.

Meanwhile, Qiu Xiaoyin, a senior agronomist at the Xiangshan agricultural technology center, revealed that rice output can reach 480 kilograms per mu for paddy fields used to farm crabs.