Photo shows (L-R): Purok Tayabasan - Barangay San Jose Chieftain Leonardo Doroteo, Barangay San Jose Indigenous Peoples Mandatory Representative Rolando Vertudez, Purok Libis - Barangay San Jose Chieftain Ernesto Doroteo, Smart VP for Community Partnerships Darwin F. Flores, and Antipolo City focal person for indigenous peoples Gemma Pajara

Digital services provider PLDT and wireless subsidiary Smart Communications, Inc. (Smart) spearheaded the sale of over Php 800,000 worth of rice to directly benefit local farmers from the holiday run of its “Buy Local, Buy Smart” program.

National Capital Region -based employees of the two companies under the leadership of Chairman Manuel V Pangilinan, along with those from Meralco, ePLDT, Metro Pacific Investments Corporation, and Light Rail Manila Corporation, purchased over 600 rice orders throughout the corporate ‘RICEponsibility’ program’s November-December 2020 run. These were ordered online in partnership with social agri-enterprise and e-commerce platform Cropital from farming communities in North and Central Luzon. 

Aside from generating sales, the initiative raised proceeds of over Php 145,000 for a sustainability fund. The donation will support the needs of a farming community in Pangasinan for the next cropping season. This is following the back-to-back typhoons in the last quarter of 2020 that severely affected the agriculture sector.

Furthermore, a “Buy One, Give One” promo allowed patrons to automatically donate a sack of rice for every sack that they purchase. The initiative was part of the MVP group’s #TuloyPaRinAngPasko movement, a call to bring the joy of the yuletide season to storm-hit communities, including 286 Dumagat families in Rizal province.  These families, who are partners in PLDT and Smart’s reforestation efforts in the Marikina Watershed, lost their upland rice crops to Typhoon Ulysses last November.

The “Buy Local, Buy Smart” initiative is an offshoot of the Digital Farmers Program (DFP), a project of Smart with the Department of Agriculture–Agricultural Training Institute (DA-ATI) that seeks to empower Filipino farmers by providing access to digital tools and technologies that can help boost productivity and marketability.  

During its pilot run in 2019, the campaign got PLDT and Smart employees buying rice directly from small-scale farmers in the fourth-class municipality of Magdalena in Laguna, with orders delivered directly to the two companies’ head offices in Makati. The initial leg generated Php 325,000 sales from over 6,400 kilos of rice purchased.

The “Buy Local, Buy Smart” campaign continues this 2021: Simply visit store.cropital.com and use the coupon code “pldtbuylocal” or “smartbuylocal” upon checkout to get a discount of up to Php 100 per order.

DFP and “Buy Local, Buy Smart” are initiatives of Smart Communities, under the framework of Technology for Development to narrow down the digital divide. The program is also aligned with the commitment of the PLDT group to support the 17 Sustainable Goals of the United Nations, particularly No Poverty (SDG 1) and Zero Hunger (SDG 2).