TRANSFORMING THE RURAL Eco NOM Y Any solution to the urban problems associated with rural-urban migration must take account of the condition of the rural population. As we have seen, most migrants move for economic thus any reasons, policy that transforms the rural economy will affect the scale and pace of urban development. Policies to redistribute land to the poor may slow urban growth by raising agricultural incomes. Few Third World governments, however, possess the political will or ability to implement proposed land-reform policies. Other rural programmes may have the opposite effect: the green revolution and other attempts to raise agricultural productivity through incentives to commercial farming accentuated land lessness and stimulated rather than reduced the flow of city-bound migrants.33 The effects of rural industrialisation strategies have also been mixed. In Thailand the g has promoted the indus- trialisation of the countryside' in the peripheral north and north-east regions, whence the majority of cityward migrants originate. This has involved the modernisation of cottage industries and the establishment of putting out' systems where rural households perform part of the manufacturing process for urban-based industries. The resulting