SMEs and women farmers from General Tinio, Nueva Ecija recently received capital assistance from PLDT and its wireless unit, Smart Communications, Inc. (Smart), through its ‘Buy Local’ program.
Women farmers in Nueva Ecija receive a check from PLDT and SMART (IMAGE CREDIT: prstation.ph)
Sustainability funding equivalent to P160,000 was provided to Nueva Ecija SMEs and women farmers as low-interest loans to help augment the cost of farming inputs.
“We believe that the role of women in agriculture is important. Through this initiative, we want to reach more women farmers in the Philippines and assist them with their needs. Backed by our ‘Buy Local’ program, we aim to enable inclusive growth by providing equal opportunities to men and women,” said Cathy Yang, First Vice President and Group Head of Corporate Communications at PLDT and Smart, in a press release.
Helping address challenges faced by SMEs and women farmers
Agriculture is normally one of the hardest hit industries when typhoons sweep through provinces in the Philippines.
Marites Vista, a woman farmer from General Tinio, Nueva Ecija (IMAGE CREDIT: prstation.ph)
“One of the most heartbreaking truths about farming is that when our lands get flooded due to bad weather, there won’t be enough harvest to sell and to feed our families. As women and mothers, we face this reality and we continue working until the storm passes,” shared Marites Vista, 52, a woman farmer from General Tinio.
To help address the challenges faced by SMEs and womens farmers, PLDT and Smart’s homegrown advocacy, ‘Buy Local’ was formed to help provide farmers with a sure market for their crops.
Through ‘Buy Local’, all harvested produce from partner farming communities is sold to PLDT and Smart’s employees at a more reasonable cost, through the e-commerce platform Cropital.
This generates higher profit, with part of the sales eventually going to a sustainability fund.
Cropital is a crowdfunding platform that aims to link smallholder farmers to alternative sources of funding.
“SMEs and women farmers have caught up with changing times and are now able to learn new and improved ways towards sustainable farming. We are thankful for the opportunity to become a part of PLDT and Smart’s initiative that supports local farming communities,” said Felina Rivera, 58, another ‘Buy Local’ beneficiary.
To date, PLDT and Smart ‘Buy Local’ has already raised over P2M, providing capital support to more than 200 farmers nationwide.
PLDT and Smart prioritize the empowerment of SMEs and women farmers and communities in their key initiatives. The Group remains committed to helping boost the livelihood and eventually uplift the quality of the lives of Filipino farmers. This is also aligned with the UN SDGs #1 No Poverty and #8 Decent Work and Economic Growth.
