People take part in a rice planting competition. [Photo/hangzhou.com.cn]

Yuhang district in Hangzhou, East China's Zhejiang province is spearheading digital agriculture, with e-commerce companies and online celebrities playing an active role in its development.

Located in west Yuhang, Rice Town is the birthplace of the district's digital agriculture industry. Consisting of eight villages including Yong'an and Xita, the town covers a total area of 71.8 square kilometers and has 2,000 hectares of paddy fields.

AliCloud, the online cloud computing unit of e-commerce giant Alibaba Group, will bring innovative agricultural technology and traceable blockchains to the town, helping it shape and design new agricultural products. Six start-up companies have also announced that they will settle in the town.

Online and offline integration will be a pivotal part of the town, which aims to offer visitors exquisite agricultural and rural tourism products.

Jiang Zhang, also known as the online celebrity "Sister Rice", will also be helping to promote the digital agriculture industry.

The town will also open an official store on Tmall, the e-commerce site of Alibaba, and bring authentic local products to people across the country.

"We plan to introduce 20 more companies within the year and let digital technology and the internet really boost the town's development," said an official from the town.