Agropolitan: agropolitan malaysia overview

Thursday, February 26, 2009

agropolitan malaysia overview

Agropolitan is an initiative aimed at eradicating hardcore poverty through various agricultural and agro-based development projects.

It brings together a group of hardcore poor into a sustainable, all-encompassing community.

Agropolitan involves tertiary and secondary economic activities aimed at creating employment opportunities and increasing income growth for the participants.

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Agropolitan. It's all about the well-being of children

In a 1982 review of its policies, UNICEF reports:

‘On the basis of experience and observation, UNICEF is convinced that participatory approaches are the only ones that hold out long-term hopes of effective development …

‘While national policy and master plans can make significant contributions to the solution of family and community problems, in the final analysis it is men and women living out their daily lives and working creatively and resourcefully - participating in the process of development and developing solutions with available resources - who will improve the lives of children.’ (UNICEF 1982, 132)

John Friedman, 1987: Planning in the public domain

As a concept of socio-economic change, agropolitan development refers to self-reliant development that aims at a substantial increase in the productive forces of rural populations and the betterment of rural life. Through the extension of basic services such as electric power, clean water, modern communications, primary education, and health clinics, agropolitan development looks to the ‘urbanization of the countryside.’ Along with the provision of these services, the model proposes the social guarantee of the fulfillment of ‘basic needs’ of rural households. Finally, it proposes a strategy that relies heavily on the peasantry’s capacity for social learning.
As a geographical concept, agropolitan development refers to a bounded space, a territory that defines an area for common decision and action. Lying at the intersection of political, economic, and cultural spaces, this territory constitutes the immediate habitat or life space of the rural population. Agropolitan districts may be operationally defined as containing at least one urban centre and a population of between forty and sixty thousand who live no further than a day’s return travelling distance – by non-mechanised means of conveyance - from this centre.
As a political concept, agropolitan refers to the entire district population as a political community to which is ascribed a capacity for self-determination in matters of common concern. The community regulates access to land and water, and it may call on its members to contribute their time and energy to public works. The community, defined by an agropolitan district and operating through its political assemblies, becomes the principal recipient of government assistance and the major agent, above the level of household, of comprehensive rural development. An ‘agropolis’ as described in these terms is meant to be equivalent in every way to an urban commune.