Ornamental agriculture is growing fast across the entire Philippines during the pandemic, and the government couldn’t keep up.
To catch up with this trend, Ernie Lito Bollosa, agriculturist at the Bureau of Plant Agriculture (BPI), an attached agency of the Department of Agriculture (DA), thinks the government should come up with an accreditation process for all seller ‘plantitos’ and ‘plantitas’ out there.
This, according to him, will make it easier for the government to give flower and plant growers access to support and credit; mandate them to follow a set of guidelines in terms of the use of chemicals on their plants, which will help ensure the safety of their and their workers’ health; improve traceability on the origin of the plants; and lastly, make sure that consumers are paying the right price – from the soil and pots to the plant itself.
All of these things are important to make ornamental agriculture an official, regulated industry within the farm sector, Bollosa said, but it may still take some time to make it happen.
Plantitos or plantitas are a portmanteau, a made-up word from combining the word ‘plants’ and ‘uncles or aunties’. The informal term is normally used to describe people who would acquire plants and would act as their guardians.
“We did observe that ornamental agriculture is booming. Buying and taking care of plants that are for decorative purposes has become a therapeutic activity for people during the pandemic. For others who lost their jobs, they started to venture in this, become plantitos and plantitas, and sell what they make,” Bollosa told Business Bulletin.