Sesame is one of the oldest oilseed crop known to mankind for its seeds. The main reason for their popularity is that they have many health-promoting nutrients and elements. The world produces about 3 million tons of sesame seeds every year. Myanmar, India, China, Sudan, and Tanzania are the key producers accounting for 70% of the total production.
Sesame world belt farm production
Sesame is a warmer weather crop, which is mostly grown in tropical and subtropical areas up to an elevation of about 1200 meters. These conditions require specific plant performance which makes it capable of thriving despite the challenging environment. Sesame farming in suitable conditions bring numerous benefits:
- Sesame is a versatile crop with unique attributes to fit almost any cropping system
- It achieves more profit when grown with limited resources and offers more return for less cost (less risk) than any other crop
- It doesn’t require additional farming equipment than that used for cereal farming
- It has excellent disease and insect tolerance
- Sesame in a crop rotation reduces nematodes in the soil
- Deep taproot may reach and utilize nutrients and moisture below the root zones of other crops
- Sesame adds beneficial residue within the whole soil profile, resulting in improved tillage and topsoil properties
- Excellent drought and heat tolerance – it thrives where other crops fail.
As a drought and heat tolerant crop, sesame has the ability to retain a relatively higher level of hydration under conditions of soil or/and atmospheric water stress. Factors enabling that are:
- Rapid phenological crop development
- Vigorous, deep, extensive and well branched fibrous root system
- Narrowed hairy leaves with an ability to roll themselves, close stomata and secrete a waxy substance on the surface to reduce transpiration
- Osmotic adjustment to lower the osmotic potential
- High root/shoot ratio.
Although sesame is a drought tolerant crop, it requires adequate moisture for germination at an early growth stage. The presence of excess water can also lower the yields. Moisture levels before planting and flowering impact yield the most.
Sesame plant in the field
To have successful sesame farming, farmers need to have good management practices, which they can manage with Agrivi software. From tillage to harvest, farmers can track all activities on the field in the form of tasks, track all resources like fertilizers, pesticides, fuel, work hours for workers and plan the whole season in advance. AGRIVI offers a variety of tools to help farmers manage their farm production. In addition to record keeping and pest alarms, it also has reports for each part of the production process as well as powerful analytics. Sesame may not be a magic crop that solves all of the production challenges for farmers. However, it may offer a viable alternative or profitable rotation crop for more traditional enterprises.
Include sesame in your farm production and manage your farming with AGRIVI.
Text sources: Sesaco || Sesame Grower Guide
Image sources: American Sesame Growers Association
