Villagers water plants of a cooperative in Niangziguan Village, Niangziguan Town, Pingding County, north China's Shanxi Province, on Feb. 26, 2019. (Xinhua/Cao Yang)

The number of cooperatives, the organization aims to assist in efforts of poverty alleviation in rural China, saw an immoderate increase in the first half of 2019.

BEIJING, July 31 (Xinhua) -- China's largest cooperative organization helped set up over 50,000 farmer cooperatives in the first half (H1) of 2019 as part of the country's anti-poverty efforts.

These cooperatives aim to support sales of local produce by expanding the trade network, according to the All China Federation of Supply and Marketing Cooperatives (ACFSMC).

The ACFSMC encourages chain merchandise enterprises to set up special consumption areas and counters where produce from poor regions are promoted and sold.

In H1, 80.82 billion yuan of agricultural products were purchased from poverty-stricken areas, and 3,290 enterprises were introduced to help local farmers, the ACFSMC said.

Some 116,000 poor households joined these new farmer cooperatives, according to ACFSMC.