BEIJING — The central government's poverty alleviation funds reported an annual growth rate of 21 percent in China from 2013 to 2019, an official said.

The central government will continue to increase poverty alleviation funds in 2020 and has allocated 113.6 billion yuan (about $16.39 billion) to fight poverty this year, said Huang Yan, an official with the State Council Leading Group Office of Poverty Alleviation and Development, at a press conference on March 10.

The country's provincial-level regions, cities and counties have injected more than 200 billion yuan in poverty alleviation this year, and the figure is higher than the same period last year, she said.

Due to the epidemic, nearly half of the migrant workers have not returned to their jobs in cities, said Wei Baigang, an official with the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, at the press conference.

The agricultural and rural departments need to boost services to help them return to cities for work, he said.

For those who are engaged in farm work in villages, more should be done to help them prepare for spring plowing and provide them with sufficient agricultural materials and technological services, he said.