Abstract: To provide theoretical basis for making full use of sunshine resources to develop local ecological agriculture, develop and utilize solar energy, and construct livable urban in eastern Gansu province, the meteorological data of representative area including Xifeng district, Kongtong district and Huanxian county was used to analyze the interannual variation characteristics of sunshine hours and tested the sudden change of sunshine hours by Mann-Kendall method. The results showed that the change of sunshine hours in eastern Gansu province showd a decreasing trend, the reduction rate was followed as orders of Kongtong district, Xifeng district and Huanxiancounty from big to small, and the sunshine hours in Kongtong decreased most obviously, but the reduction rate of sunshine hours was less than that of the whole country. The annual variation of sunshine hours in different regions had its own characteristics. In the past ten years, the annual sunshine hours were on the low side, and in summer, autumn and winter, they were also on the low side. The sudden change periods of sunshine hours were different, there were two obvious mutations in Kongtong district, with the earliest mutation time, and the latest mutation time of Xifeng district. On the whole, the sunshine resources in eastern Gansu province are relatively abundant, which is conducive to the develope and utilize of solar energy, improve crop photosynthesis efficiency, develope characteristic agriculture and construct ecological environment. In the planning of agricultural industry development, we should take measures according to local conditions, combine with the light characteristics of crop growth, introducing crops appropriately, arranging reasonably, making full use of light energy efficiency, to vigorously develop facility agriculture and characteristic agriculture, and improve crop quality and yield.

Key words: sunshine hours, change characteristics, impact analysis, eastern Gansu province