Thaliparamba: Six feet above the soil and glowing in gold, thousands of sunflowers have transformed the landscape of the Bakkalam fields into a radiant expanse. The spectacle also signals a new chapter in the agricultural journey of Anil Kumar, an organic farmer.

The hybrid sunflower seeds were sown on an experimental basis over a 25-cent land by Anil Kumar, a farmer who has earned statewide recognition for practising Palekar-style farming method. As the plants matured, each produced a striking blossom weighing up to one-and-a-half kilograms, including seeds. The first batch of nearly 4,000 sunflower plants is now in full bloom across his fields.

Although Anil had cultivated sunflowers on a smaller scale in previous years, he says this is the first time he has ventured into large-scale sunflower farming using hybrid seeds. The shift came after he witnessed the success of his friend Lakshmanan, a native of Mayyil, who not only cultivated sunflowers but also extracted and marketed sunflower oil from the seeds. Inspired by this model, Anil now aims to produce and sell sunflower oil from his own harvest.

The seeds were sown in stages so that once the first batch bloomed, subsequent batches would flower in two phases. Apart from applying poultry manure immediately after sowing, the crop required little more than regular irrigation. Sunflowers weighing up to one and a half kilograms, Anil notes, are a rare and remarkable yield.

Alongside sunflower cultivation, Anil continues his vegetable farming too. He grows spinach on nearly one and a half acres of land and also cultivates pumpkin, ash gourd and broccoli etc.