SEED, Okada Manila empower students with agri education

In a survey by Pulse Asia, 83 percent of Filipinos prefer brands with eco-friendly operations.

- By MAT RICHTER

While this reflects an interest in environment-safe businesses, all of us must be sustainability changemakers.

Sounds heavy? Being one may even require a bit, if not much, of inventiveness. But Filipino ingenuity needs no sliver of it, for we appear to be born with one or to have developed such from dire circumstances.

Once underserved communities, they are now learning to profit from their passion. The students at Gawad Kalinga Bayanihan Village in Cavite have received scholarships for agri education and training under the partnership of Okada Manila and School for Experiential and Entrepreneurial Development (SEED), helping mainstream local agriculture.

This move appears not new nor highly innovative. But it challenges business owners to teach people to pick their own fruits from trees, rather than giving them the fruits per se, typically to tick SDG boxes.

Through the resort's initiative "Okada Green Heart," scholars can have access to basics of agriculture, its entrepreneurial aspect, and community organization and communication. Here's how they are empowered to boost local farming and promote sustainability.

Pathway to progress