Law on 'all-time support' for Moro farmers pushed

COTABATO CITY— Nine members of the Bangsamoro parliament filed on Monday a bill meant to “institutionalize and perpetuate” regional government interventions needed to empower the agriculture sector in all six provinces under its jurisdiction.

The Public Information and Communications Team of the 80-seat regional parliament announced on Tuesday that the Bill 260, principally authored by Amir Mawallil, aims to establish a comprehensive framework for connectivity of constituent-farmers with agencies of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao that ought to provide them sustained support to boost their productivity.

“Agriculture is one of the economic strengths of the autonomous region. The bill promises to build a more robust industry that can ultimately help our farmers,” Mawallil said

Regional planning officials said no less than 60 percent of BARMM’s Moro, non-Moro and indigenous residents rely on propagation of short-term crops, orchard trees and coconut palms as main sources of income.

If enacted into law, Bill 260 shall compel the Bangsamoro government, through its Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Agrarian Reform, to establish facets that can directly connect to farmers in need of essential support and technical services.

Farmers in BARMM, covering provinces that were originally under the now defunct Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao that existed for 29 years, have long been complaining about the lack of access to provincial and municipal offices of agencies that can help bail them out from poverty and underdevelopment.

The Bill 260 aims to cut the bureaucratic layers separating ministries of BARMM and the impoverished farmers and fisherfolk in coastal areas in the autonomous region and those in Bangsamoro towns along central Mindanao’s upland 220,000 hectare Liguasan Delta.

Governors Jim Salliman of Basilan and Mamintal Adiong, Jr., of Lanao del Sur, had separately assured to support the Bill 260 that Mawallil and co-authors filed at the regional parliament Monday.

Salliman said that their provincial government has examples of how it is helping empower its constituent Muslim and Christian farmers via their educational greenhouses and