COTABATO CITY – Farming communities under the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) in Midsayap, North Cotabato, have received PHP83 million worth of farming interventions for increased productivity, an official said Friday.

Lawyer Naguib Sinarimbo, BARMM interior minister, said among those distributed Thursday in the BARMM Special Geographic Area (SGA) in the Midsayap cluster were farm machinery and equipment, including motorized bancas with complete fishing gear.

“The assistance is expected to improve the lives of BARMM farmers and fisherfolks in the area through productivity and income,” Sinarimbo said, adding that funding was sourced from the Special Development Fund of the regional government.

At least 63 villages in six towns in North Cotabato opted to join the BARMM in a two-part plebiscite held in 2019.

In Midsayap town, Barangay Tumbras and 12 other villages are now part of BARMM under the SGA component. There are at least 600 farmers in the Midsayap cluster alone.

Sinarimbo said the aid is a realization of BARMM Chief Minister Ahod Ebrahim’s dream of improving the lives of ordinary residents of the region.

He said residents of the 63 villages in the SGA have so far received modern infrastructures such as village halls and community activity centers.

“Our interventions will keep pouring in SGA, so its constituents can feel how BARMM’s moral governance is shaping the local government units,” Sinarimbo said.

In April this year, some PHP84 million worth of agricultural intervention was also distributed to farmers in other SGA villages of Midsayap. (PNA)