Philip Morris (Pakistan) Limited (PMPKL), along with Philip Morris International (PMI), celebrated the 10-year anniversary of the Agricultural Labor Practices program (“ALP”) that has been in place for a decade to continuously reform its green leaf supply chain and improve the lives of its contracted farmers (“Farmers”).
Marking ALP’s anniversary, PMI published a report that also highlighted PMPKL’s contributions towards generating a positive impact in the lives of tobacco Farmers along with several other initiatives undertaken to protect, promote, and support the socioeconomic well-being of tobacco farmers.
In line with the principles of ALP to achieve the required targets, PMPKL introduced several initiatives to improve the Farmers’ livelihood. One such initiative was the launch of an automated platform that communicated messages to over 6,800 Farmers and workers in local languages on their mobile phones that focused on issues such as ALP code, sustainability, crop integrity and COVID-19 prevention. A platform was also created that served as a portal for farm workers to register any potential complaints or grievances regarding non-compliance with ALP.
In addition to this, PMPKL, under its ‘Crop and Diversification Program’, provided technical and material support to Farmers in form of mushroom farming and sale during off season and also distributed 7 different types of vegetables for cultivation in the Farmers’ backyards with the aim of increasing their living income. Furthermore, PMPKL provided modern machinery, 109 Re-Ridgers and 3 Transplanters, to facilitate the Farmers in transplanting the green leaf crop. PMPKL also provided 168 “Green Leaf Stringing Machines” in an effort to eliminate child labor while also making the activity cost effective.
Mr. Irshad Khan-Head of Leaf PMPKL, while commenting on the successful completion of 10 years of ALP said, “Philip Morris acknowledges that swift and urgent action is needed to ensure continuous improvement in the lives and livelihood of our agricultural workforce. The targets we have achieved through the ALP program are not only encouraging for our farmers but also motivate PMPKL to become more steadfast in its mission to ensure the well-being of tobacco-farming communities.”
