DAVAO CITY—The Bangsamoro government poured P22.5 million for agricultural equipment and farm inputs, as well as operational loans to farmers’ cooperatives in its various provinces as the region commemorated its fourth anniversary.
The Ministry of Agrarian Reform also dished out certificates of awards to landless farmers to the land they tilled for decades.
The distribution of assistance was held at the Government Regional Center in Cotabato City.
The agriculture and fisheries inputs given were the following: one rice transplanter worth P340,000; one hand tractor worth P140,000; one rice thresher worth P140,000; one corn sheller worth P140,000; one hammer mill worth P50,000; 100 bags of inbred palay seeds worth P92,000; 50 bottles each of insecticide and herbicides worth P70,000; 2,000 sachets of seeds for each of the eight vegetables (eggplant, bell pepper, squash, bitter gourd, cucumber, pole sitao, hot pepper, tomato and watermelon); and 18,305 bottles of Foliar fertilizers with a total cost of P15,559,250. These input total to P16,531,000.
The Economic Development Committee (EDCom) of the Bangsamoro Economic and Development Council (BEDC), which is chaired by the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Agrarian Reform (MAFAR), distributed the inputs to the identified cooperatives.
The Cooperative and Social Enterprise Authority (CSEA) also witnessed the distribution.
MAFAR Minister Mohammad Yacob said, “We are given the opportunity to showcase what these ministries can offer to our clients and beneficiaries through the ceremonial distribution of inputs, programs, grants, assistance, and services including CLOA [certificate of land ownership and award],”Yacob said.
MAFAR also extended P100,000 to three cooperatives from Pikit, North Cotabato-Special Geographic Area (SGA), Datu Odin Sinsuat in Maguindanao del Norte, and Datu Piang, Maguindanao del Sur. The fund was under the program Loans for Enhancement of Necessary Development Strategies (MafarLends).
It also distributed six freezers to six cooperatives, 23 units of fishing net and nylon sets to 20 beneficiaries, 2,500 pieces of tilapia fingerlings to each of four beneficiaries, five sets of freshwater gillnet to five beneficiaries, four sets of speargun with accessories to two beneficiaries, and two rolls of BB net, five rolls of CC net and two rolls of polynet to one cooperative.
Also, the Ministry of Agrarian Reform distributed 1,509 CLOAs to agarian reform beneficiaries (ARB) in the provinces of Maguindanao (five new lands), Basilan (684 new lands), Sulu (474 new lands), and Tawi-Tawi (311 new lands). The CLOAs cover a total of 3, 316.8542 hectares.
A total of 1,474 ARBs received the new land titles.
The CSEA, through its Special Assistance for Viable Enterprise (SAVE) program, provided P150,000 to each of the 38 cooperatives from the Maguindanao del Sur and del Norte as assistance to the recovery and rehabilitation of the cooperatives whose business operations were affected by the pandemic and armed conflict.
