Individu

2. How could agricultural development help the rural poor? Discuss

In my opinion, agricultural development definitely can help the rural poor. As

we all know that, largely the rural folks live as farmers, plantation workers and
fishermen. So if the government could do something about agricultural development,
the rural people will gain benefit from it.

For the time being, our Government had set up pilot 21st Century Villages
which will have modern amenities such as broadband so that the young have at least
some of the things they are used to having in the urban areas. Overall, the 21st
Century Village is an experiment using four different models.
For the first model, called Rimbunan Kasih, the state governments work
closely with the private sector to develop a modern integrated fertigation farm. Each
development will have a housing and farm component. These will allow for the
employment of at least 100 able-bodied Malaysians in rural areas with a minimum
salary RM1,500 per month.
In the second model initiative, large-scale premium fruit and vegetable farms
will be jointly developed by the Rural and Regional Development Ministry and private
sector anchor companies. The third model leverages on existing co-operatives within
rural communities to further develop and enhance existing economic activities, eg
eco-tourism, plantations and industry support. For the last model, the Government
has competitions and it gives grants to those who come up with good ideas that will
work in agriculture.
In addition, the government are trying to learn from other countries, such as
Taiwan, for intensive farming and also to meet with international standards for
agricultural produce which cover fish and shrimp for instance.
The adoption of MyGAP, the internationally recognised standard will help
bring the agriculture produce into the more lucrative markets which, in turn, will help
increase the income of the rural population.
In the larger scheme of things, good agriculture does not only provide food
security, it also helps to increase rural incomes through agricultural entrepreneurship
and close the income gaps within the country.