COMMENT | Ten years ago, the 2008 World Development Bank report indicated that rural migration to cities does not help put an end to rural poverty at all.

It merely serves to create the impression that rural poverty in the rural and sub-rural areas are gone, when in fact, poverty is transferred from rural zones to cities.

By 2050, 75 percent of Malaysians, indeed, Asians, will live in urban cities. If such migration continues, without a national agricultural plan, Malaysians will see poverty in urban and rural areas.

In other words, to end rural and sub-rural poverty, the national economy cannot be based on an industrial master plan alone. There needs to be an agricultural backbone to support the national economy...