On Sunday, April 6 marked the start of Holy Week. For a flower farmer like Mang Andoy, this event should give him enough to support his family’s needs. However, cancellation of events and mass gatherings has taken a toll on the income of flower farmers like him.

A set of harvest should be ready for the Holy Week, Mang Andoy said. An aster flower takes three and a half months to grow and harvest so it had to be targetted to bloom days before Palm Sunday. This year however, he started to pull out his flowers from his field in Los Banos, Laguna due to lack of orders from events organizers. The full bloom was not ideal as flowers would be too mature to be sellable even after the quarantine has ended.

Worse, the Department of Health ordered the cancellation of concerts or other forms of mass gatherings. In response, the Catholic church has cancelled all public masses and will proceed with the celebration of Holy Week unusually via online and through the television.

The flowers hence will all turn to waste, an expensive liability for Mang Andoy.

He estimates a loss of P60,000 for his supposed harvest in March and April. Their full income last Valentine’s Day was the input for this season’s harvest.

“Hindi tuloy ako mkatanim uli. Walang [pera na] pang-suporta sa patubig at mga pesticide, fertilizer (I am not able to resume farming again. I do not have money for irrigation, pesticides, and fertilizer),” Mang Andoy said.

He is now hoping for the end of the lockdown to be able to sell flowers on Mother’s Day. If the lockdown continues, it is another loss for Mang Andoy.

Mang Andoy is the first beneficiary of financial assistance from #SupportFarmersPH to help him kickstart his farm again and to make up for the losses.

“Hindi po ako makapaniwala… makakakilos na po ako uli sa bukid nang maayos (I cannot believe it. I can finally mobilize for my farm again),” he said.

Read the full story here: https://tagani.ph/community/1159-flower-farmer-fac...