Poverty eradication: The Malaysia way of organizing poor and landless people

In Malaysia, numerous institutions (authority) have been introduced generally with the same objectify, to reduce poverty by improve the living standard in rural areas. One important and most successful example of institution that helps in poverty eradication was the new land and resource development strategy under Federal Land Development Authority (FELDA). This strategy was proposed by the World Bank in 1954 and was also implemented in the First Malaya Plan (1956-1960). It is an instrument designed to develop idle land, to provide the landless and the under-employed with better income, and make those in the villages in the backward areas feel a part of the centre. This new land development strategy was seen to be more important than the in-situ rural development strategy because it encouraged the movement of large numbers of the rural poor and landless population to the areas in which the land development schemes operated. The new land development strategy was mainly involved in the commodity products for export (rubber and oil palm).This institution (FELDA), not only play a major role as a main contributors to the production of Malaysian export commodities (rubber and palm oil) but also had successfully raised the average net monthly income of FELDA settlers to a level above the poverty line. The Malaysian way of organizing poor and landless people in commercial agricultural production was recognised internationally as an ideal model to deal with rural poverty