PLDT, Smart take on 'buy local' advocacy to benefit farmers, community artisans
MANILA, Philippines — PLDT and its wireless unit, Smart Communications Inc., recently joined hands to support a common cause that of boosting the livelihood of local farmers and community artisans by "buying local."
"Buy Local" has always been one of PLDT and Smart’s homegrown advocacies on livelihood that aims to help provide farmers with a sure market for their crops. And so, the sister companies spread the love and hosted a product sale in their Makati City headquarters recently to generate additional income for the farmers.
For one, rice harvested from "Buy Local" partner farming communities were sold to interested PLDT and Smart employees during the product sale. They were sold at a discounted price, which was beneficial for the buyers, but was still profitable for the farmers because no middlemen were involved.
Fresh flowers were also sold during the product sale, with part of the generated profits to be allocated to the "Buy Local" sustainability fund, which is meant to be lent to other farmers as low-interest loans to help augment their cost of budget for farming inputs.
Buyers also feasted on the local artisan and carefully handcrafted goods from the Community Crafts Association of the Philippines Inc. (CCAP), to which the PLDT Group has been extending livelihood opportunities to local artists in Negros Occidental since 2019. This partnership between PLDT and CCAP has helped scale up the enterprise development of the General Luna Kapit Bisig Association (GenLuKBA), a community-based artisan group from Barangay General Luna in Toboso, Negros Occidental. A total of 24 women artisans of GenLuKBA have benefitted from learning sessions that enabled them to level up their skills and keep up with emerging trends in the creative industry. These include trainings on product and design development and the conduct of a market study to find an appropriate selling outlet for their products.
“We are thrilled to create simple but meaningful ways for our colleagues in the office to support our partner farmers and local artisans. We look forward to more opportunities of paying it forward,” said Cathy Yang, first Vice President and Group Head of Corporate Communications, PLDT and Smart.
