Gushan town in Jingjiang city – a county-level city administered by Taizhou city, in East China's Jiangsu province – is home to a field covering almost 100 mu (6.67 hectares) of sunflowers, which has created both a rural landscape that is a hit with visitors as well as job opportunities.
In 2022, Lezhuang Community in the town experimented with planting sunflowers on a small scale, covering only 2-3 mu.
However, during the blooming season, the sunflowers attracted rafts of people from nearby areas who came to take photos and the sunflower seeds thrived.
A tourist photographs the bright sunflowers. [Photo/xuexi.cn]
Encouraged by this success, Lezhuang Community expanded the plantation to nearly 100 mu this year.
When the sunflowers mature, the community harvests them and dries them to produce sunflower oil. Compared with conventional crops like soybeans and sesame, sunflowers offer higher economic benefits.
Each mu is expected to yield 200-300 kilograms of sunflower seeds, with an oil content of about 30 percent.
Moreover, the sunflower plantation has brought new possibilities for integrating the development of agriculture and tourism.
The community plans to create a "happy farm" in the sunflower field, where interested folks can adopt a plot and participate in the entire process of planting, while enjoying the pleasure of labor alongside their children.
The cultivation, weeding and harvesting of the sunflower field requires a lot work, which has provided employment opportunities for unemployed villagers.