Research makes sunflower 'waste' profitable

Yang Li is busy decorating his new apartment with the extra money he made from selling parts of sunflowers that were previously discarded.

Yang, a farmer from Shuanggang village of Jilin province's Baicheng city, used to eke out a living selling sunflower seeds from 1 hectare of farmland. Now, thanks to new technology, he can make an extra 54,000 yuan ($7,960) a year with sunflower disks－the hard round center of the plant left over once the sunflower seeds are harvested.

"We never knew the disk could bring in money because even cows don't like to eat it. Now, I can afford to travel with my wife with our increasing income," said Yang, 58.