COTABATO CITY — Several members of the Bangsamoro Parliament turned over farm equipment to various cooperatives in the region to help them increase agricultural productivity.

The distribution of the farm equipment is part of the Bangsamoro Transition Authority’s Transitional Development Impact Fund (TDIF) with the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Agrarian Reform (MAFAR) as the implementing agency. 

The TDIF is an initiative project of the members of the Parliament that provides assistance to their chosen beneficiaries.

To date, Diamila Disimban-Ramos, Deputy Minister Ammal Solaiman, Romeo Saliga, Zul Qarneyn Abas, and Ali Salik have turned over farm equipment to their respective beneficiaries.

The beneficiaries are the following:

MP Ramos: seven (7) mini-rice mills in the municipality of Pikit and provinces of Lanao del Sur and Maguindanao;

MP Saliga: two (2) farm machinery for the IP communities of Bungcog and Bayabas in Upi, Maguindanao;

MP Abas: rice thresher in Brgy. Crossing Simuay, Sultan Kudarat, Maguindanao; and

MP Salik: one (1) unit of a combine harvester to the United Family Farmers Cooperative in Pikit.

In a turn-over ceremony, MP Ramos emphasized that “farmers need modern machinery and technology to help them grow and develop their farming livelihood.”

“This project is our response to several consultations that our office has conducted in aid of drafting legislations and in implementing meaningful interventions to uplift the living conditions of our farmers,” Ramos said.

The Bangsamoro “farmers should not only be labelled beneficiaries but partners because they are considered active partners of the BARMM government,” according to Deputy Minister Solaiman, who attended the activity. 

“They are our partners, and because of them, we have enough supplies on our tables, especially in these trying times,” Solaiman continued. 

He said that the distribution of farm equipment is only the beginning of the Bangsamoro government’s interventions, programs and projects for the Bangsamoro farmers.

BARMM government has allocated P24-million worth of projects under TDIF to each member of the Parliament through its various ministries. (Publication and Media Relations Division)