Agropolitan Project: Role in Rural Development and Poverty Eradication

*Mohd Khairi Ismail, Chamhuri Siwar and Muhamad Zahid Muhamad*

## **Abstract**

Theoretical discussions on vicious cycle of poverty shows poverty is a societal problem involving various factors and difficult to overcome. Hence, the efforts to resolve it are necessary as it gives negative impression to society and country. In Malaysia, poverty rate in rural areas remain higher than in urban areas. The situation has prompted the government to focus its efforts to eradicate poverty in the rural area. The Agropolitan project is an incentive by Malaysian government, introduced in 2007 to eradicate poverty in rural areas by increasing the income of participants. This chapter will consider the Agropolitan Project of Gahai, Malaysia as a case study. Discussion of the case study for Agropolitan Gahai Project has shown how its implementation can contribute to the alleviation through increasing income of participants whereby participants were not categorized poor and helped them move out of the vicious cycle of poverty.

**Keywords:** Agropolitan, rural development, poverty eradication

#### **1. Introduction**

Poverty is an issue that is still a concern in most countries of the world. It is a complex phenomenon and covers many dimensions and is closely related to human and social behavior [1]. It is estimated that over 1.2 billion people around the world are in a state of poverty in which 26% are categorized as low national income, 58% with moderate national income, and 17% as medium high national income [2]. Poverty in many countries also tends to be concentrated in rural areas than in the city. According to [3], more than three quarters of poor society members are those who live in rural areas. The poor are expected to continue to live in rural areas for several decades. The issue of poverty is giving a signal to all parties to continue efforts to eradicate poverty.

Globally, aggressive efforts to eradicate poverty can be viewed through the implementation of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) which involves 15 years of duration since year 2000. The implementation of the MDGs are aimed at eradicating poverty, aimed at eight goals, namely eradicating extreme poverty and hunger; achieving universal basic education; achieving gender equality and empower women; reducing the rate of children's mortality; improving the health state of mothers; preventing human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)/acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), malaria, and other diseases; ensuring the preservation and

sustainability of nature; and promoting global cooperation. Report of [4] showed greater success in eradicating poverty in the last 15 years. According to the report:


Presently, efforts to eradicate poverty continued through the implementation of Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). SDG has established the eradication of all forms of poverty in the society. In the year 2030, all individuals are targeted to not suffer any form of poverty where people strive to live with a minimum of USD\$1.25 per day. In addition to that, some of the goals were also determined, that is:


In the Malaysian context, the reduction of poverty rates is strongly contributed by the policy implementation by the government, through four major policies, namely New Economic Policy (NEP) (1970–1990), the National Development Policy (NDP) (1990–2000), National Vision Policy (NVP) (2001–2010), New Economic Model (MBE) (2010), and Shared Prosperity Vision (SPV 2030). Malaysia has managed to reduce the rate of poverty from 49.3% in the year 1970 to 0.4% in the year 2016 as in **Table 1**.

The national poverty rate in Malaysia has declined from 49.3% in the year 1970 to 0.6% the year 2014. Poverty analysis based on strata showed declining trend in the urban and rural areas. In the urban area, the rate continued to decline to 0.3 % in the year 2014 compared to 21.3% in 1970. The rural area exhibited the same declining trend from the year 1970 until the year 2014, but with a slight rise in 2009. Despite the decreasing trend in both areas, during the years from 1970 to 2017, the rate of poverty in rural areas remained higher than in the urban. The difference in the rate of poverty is pushing the government to focus its efforts to eradicate poverty in the rural areas.


*Agropolitan Project: Role in Rural Development and Poverty Eradication DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.93441*

#### **Table 1.**

*Poverty incidents in Malaysia 1970–2016.*

Rural poverty eradication has been government's priority because there are more than 36% of Malaysia's population (10.34 million people population) living in rural areas [7]. Therefore, the efforts to eradicate rural poverty and develop the rural areas have been given priority by the government. Among the policies and programs that have been implemented are Rural Development Master Plan (PIPLB), Indigenous Development Strategic Planning, Rural Mega Uplifting Program (PLMLB), New Model for Rural Economy (MBELB), Rural Transformation Centers (RTC) and Government Transformation Program that involve Sustainable Village Program. Rural Development and Master Plan (PIPLB), Strategic Development Plan for Indigenous People, Mega Rural Uplift Program (PLMLB), New Rural Economy Model (MBELB), and National and Rural Transformation Programs.

Among the programs to eradicate extreme poverty was implemented through the Rural Mega Uplifting Program (PLMLB) is Agropolitan project. Since 2006 till 2007, a total of 44,000 people from extreme poverty have been identified in Malaysia. Four ministries, inclusive of the Ministry of Agriculture, the Ministry of Women, Family and Community Development and Ministry of Rural and Regional Development (MRRD) were responsible for eradicating poverty which involves 10,000 people from extreme poverty cluster. At the same time, the government established five development corridors namely the Northern Corridor Economic Region (NCER), East Coast Economic Region (ECER), Sabah Development Corridor (SDC), Sarawak Renewable Energy Corridor (SCORE), and Iskandar Malaysia (ISKANDAR). Through the implementation of the five corridors, 4400 individuals from extreme poverty were placed under the implementing agencies of the respective corridors. The remaining 5600 individuals coming from extreme poverty group were handed over to MRRD for poverty eradication planning and become a focus for participating in the Agropolitan program [8].

As of 2017, there were 11 projects under agropolitan programs which have been implemented and involved five states under the supervision of the Ministry of Rural Development Affairs and Regional Development (MRRD) [9]. According to the ministry, there are two successful agropolitan programs which are Gahai Agropolitan Programme, Lipis, Pahang and Batang Lupar Agropolitan Program, Sarawak. Based on the poverty index, namely Poverty Lines Income (PLI), all participants for both agropolitan programs have been classified as non-poor after joining the agropolitan programs which were implemented since 2007 [10].
