INTRODUCTION

One of the most helpful way to boost the local economy is

by attracting visitors to visit your area by providing a
tourist destination. Nowadays, there are a lot of tourist
attractions emerging in different locations. People are
adventurous and more curious when there's a new sites
and destinations comes up. Philippine tourism
development today, has taken a major leap forward by
incorporating agricultural and environmental activities
into its programs that encourage active involvement and
participation of people and their communities.
Specifically, these are the agri-tourism and
eco-tourism endeavors of institutions,
organizations, local government units, or
even individuals who use technologies
generated and developed out of agricultural
research and development (R&D) and
protection and conservation practices on the
environment as a profitable activities for
tourists, including its aesthetic valuation.
In the Department of Agriculture (DA), agri-tourism is a
welcome initiative that opened doors for development,
according to an article of www.pinoybisnes.com. If roses
symbolizes love and romance, not many of us know that
sunflowers symbolizes adoration and loyalty. Sunflowers
are also known for being happy flower because of its color
that brings joy to the people. Sunflower is a common crop
among American Indian tribes throughout North America.
Evidences suggested that the plant was cultivated by
American Indian in Arizona and New Mexico about 3000
B.C.
By the 19th century, Russian farmers were growing over 2 million
acres of sunflower. During these times there are two specific types
of sunfower that had been identified. According to Farmers
Almanac.com that “sunflowers are heliotropic”. This means that
they turn their flowers to follow the movement of the sun across the
sky. It has a latin name “Helianthus Annuus”. Helianthus means sun
while Annuus means flower. Sunflower belongs to the family of
Asteraceae. The plant has a rough, hairy stem, broad, coarsely
toothed, rough leaves and circular heads of a flower according to
Khaleghizadeh,2011.
SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
The results of the study will be of great benefit of the following:

STUDENTS: The results will provide the students with some

knowledge on how to plant, maintain, cultivate and know the
benefits of a sunflower plant. It will give the student a realization
that sunflower is very helpful and beneficial to the community. At
the end of this study, student's would finally know why
sunflowers are a good attraction to boost the agro-tourism
industry.
Farmers: The study will benefit the local
farmers in the community allowing them to
have an income and cultivate it's land. The
local farmers can gain insights and adopt to
new techniques and strategies on how to
plant, cultivate, and grow the sunflower plant.
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE AND STUDIES
Oil cake is the by product of sunflower oil extraction and is a source of
protein for animal feed blends. Sunflower oil cake, however, is considered
to be of relatively poor quality due to a high crude fibre content. The
estimated consumption of sunflower oil cake by members of the Animal
Feed Manufacturers Association (AFMA) during 1999 was 273,000 tons
(Griessel, 1999), produced from 650,000 tons of seed. The demand for
sunflower seed is thus limited by the oil cake quality rather than the
demand for oil, which is the main product of the seed. “Agri-tourism now
is the thrust of our government to promote agriculture and help our
farmers, says Webster Letargo, a whiz kid in building successful self-
contained communities. “Sunflower were introduced to the Philippines by
the Spanish traders who sailed across the pacific ocean from Acapulco to
Manila during the 250 year Manila Galleon trade to bring goods from
Europe including seeds of Sunflower from the New World”, according to
pressreader.com.
Research on sunflower in the Philippines has been motivated by
the Philippine Refining Corporation some nine years ago where it
tapped Central Luzon State University to spearhead the
development of a package of production technology in order to
introduce sunflower in the mainstream of Philippine agriculture.
An integrated and multidisciplinary research program "Sunflower
Breeding and Production Under Tropical Conditions" was
submitted by Central Luzon State University to the National
Science and Development Board (NSDB) which was immediately
approved and funded. “Today, sunflower remain a highly
recognized flower, admired for its sunny charms and delightful
disposition.
 For a flower that reflects so many of the sun's positive
characterisitics, it isn't surprising that people enjoy
basking in the sunflowers' warming glow so much, like in
a small sunflower farm in the bustling coastla town of
Gumaca in Southern Quezon”, an article on
pressreader.com. We have to make agriculture profitable
for everyone and agriculture tourism is one way of
encouraging farmers to work harder to attract visitors,
with the help of the social media, to their well-laid out
farms.
LOCATION - Barangay Salag, Siaton Negros Oriental