The Office of the Chief Minister distributed on Thursday farm machineries to different beneficiaries from Maguindanao del Sur, Maguindanao del Norte and Special Geographic Area. (Marhom Ibrahim)
SULTAN KUDARAT, Maguindanao del Norte— A total of 45 farmers’ cooperatives in the Special Geographic Area (SGA), Maguindanao del Sur and Norte received rice threshers from the Bangsamoro Government in a ceremony held on May 9, 2024, in Simuay of this town.
The distribution is part of the livelihood support dubbed as Oplan Bangsamoro Rapid Assistance (OBRA) of the Tulong Alay sa Bangsamorong Nangangailangan (TABANG) Project—one of the flagship programs of Chief Minister Ahod Ebrahim that extends immediate support to Bangsamoro people within and outside Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM).
Under its OBRA activities, the project aims to build long-term interventions for farmers and fisherfolks including quick-response livelihood intervention that addresses the lack of access to agricultural production.
Through the P7.1-million agricultural machinery given to the cooperatives, the project expects to improve rice post-harvest processing of beneficiaries that would essentially contribute in a region-wide context.
Deputy Project Manager Abobaker Edris and Livelihood Unit Head Mohamad Asnur Pendatun said in an interview that machinery would greatly help the farmers reduce, if not eliminate, post-harvest loss.
“Aside from the reduction of post-harvest losses, this machinery will also make the harvest process faster as threshing would be mechanized,” Pendatun said.
While BARMM maintains its spot in rice production in the country with 265.6 MT total production volume in 2023, the national agriculture sector is continually challenged by post-harvest losses. Hence, farmers were very thankful that BARMM could address the problem.
Chairman of a cooperative from Upi, Maguindanao del Norte Onin Benito shared that the thresher would be helpful for their harvest, particularly that the traditional way of harvesting rice is becoming unpopular in their community.
“This machinery would help us to reduce our losses during harvest,” he shared. (Abdullah Matucan/BIO)
