Looking to make a living from the countryside, he found sunflowers. Now this peasant from Manizales lives grateful to them for her livelihood and to the National Land Agency (ANT) for the title to her property, with which she seeks to become a great businesswoman of this flower.
In Manizales, for example, it is the most sold flower in flower shops. And no study says so. It confirms it. Ledin Maria Francoa sunflower grower who, before dedicating herself to the cultivation of this exotic bud, went around the flower shops in the capital of Caldas looking for the most commercial flower.
After her exhausting exploration in search of the species that would provide sustenance for her family and meaning to her life in the countryside, Ledin, together with her husband, Luis Álvaro Franco, put her effort into learning how to cultivate it in a five-hectare property in El Espartillal, a district of Manizales.
But now, several years later, everything is different because they finally received the title of ownership, thanks to the ANT, which helped them in the process of formalizing their property.
This is how this plant, which flowers every four months, began to bear fruit for this family who waited 35 years for the deeds to their property.
For Ledin it is sad that people no longer want to work in the fields.
“The countryside is growth, profit and love, it is the future for families. All farmers must have the titles to our properties. “Being owners of the land allows us to grow and continue to exploit the soil,” she says nostalgically, hoping to encourage young people to continue working the land.
His son, for example, did not want to follow in his footsteps and his law degree kept him away from farming.
However, she and her husband continue sowing the seed, then transplanting it, so that it alone, with the turning of the sun, can do the rest.
“It is a grateful flower,” says Ledin, the same gratitude that this couple of farmers feel towards the ANT for their title, with which they plan to obtain benefits such as credits, subsidies and support to modernize their crops.
Thus becoming the main seller of sunflowers in the region.
* With information from the National Land Agency.
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