A farmer in Gansu province is busy with harvesting potatoes. (Photo: China Daily)

The 52 counties that haven't shaken off poverty yet will get more support from the central government to fulfill the nation's goal of poverty alleviation in 2020, senior officials said at a news conference of the Joint Prevention and Control Mechanism of the State Council on Tuesday.

"These 52 counties are mainly located in western parts of the country that are trapped in extreme poverty, which is the toughest task for poverty alleviation work," said Huang Yan, director of financial planning under the State Council Leading Group Office of Poverty Alleviation and Development.

She said that among these 52 counties, 10 are affected by the ongoing novel coronavirus pneumonia outbreak. One of the 10 countries still has cases under treatment.

"Though the epidemic slightly influenced these poor counties, it did bring new challenges for us in the fight against poverty."

According to Huang, the office is enhancing supervision over poverty alleviation work in these 52 counties and 1,113 villages. So far, all these counties have drafted work plans. Meanwhile, more financial support will be given to these areas.

Moreover, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs will give preferential policies to the 52 counties to help them shake off poverty.

Wei Baigang, the ministry's development planning director, said at the conference that the ministry will invite these counties to join farm produce trade fairs for free and make more market information available to farmers there.

"We will organize several trade fairs for poverty-stricken areas while not charging any fees in renting exhibition booths," he said. "Also, we will streamline procedures for farmers and companies from these 52 counties in applying organic food certificates and build cold chain logistics facilities in all these counties."

He said that the ministry also will invite industry consultants from the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences to solve problems that farmers encounter in agricultural production, helping them to increase yield and quality of their products.