This article asserts that the "Asian model" of egalitarian agricultural development is based on the experience of only very few Asian countries, especially Taiwan. In fact, the agricultural development which has occurred in much of Southeast Asia since the 1960s has been less egalitarian than in Taiwan, precisely because it has taken place in the context of an unreformed or partially reformed agrarian structure, where the distribution of land and incomes are more skewed, the labour intensity of agricultural production is lower, and linkages between on-farm and off-farm income growth are less pronounced. The article examines growth in agricultural output, the distribution of land, labour absorption in agriculture, linkages between growth in agricultural incomes and non-agricultural incomes, and changing patterns of rural employment and household income in the Southeast Asian context, and outlines the future direction of rural development policies.