Rural-urban economic disparity is still a pertinent issue in Malaysia. For example, the mean monthly gross household incomes of the rural population in 2004 were far behind that of the urban inhabitants. At the same time the incidence of rural poverty was higher at 11.9 per cent compared with 2.5 per cent for urban poverty in the same year (Malaysia, 2006). This disparity is largely attributable to the fact that the urban population generally has access to higher income employment while the rural inhabitants rely heavily on low-income economic activities, especially in the primary sector.