Sesame: the Underexploited Organic Oilseed Crop

Abstract

Sesame (Sesamum indicum L.) is an important oilseed crop that ranks sixth among vegetable oils worldwide. Asia and Africa respecti vely account for 2. and 0.9 of the 3.66 million tons produced worldwide. However, Africa’s net export of the commodity is just 38% of its producti on, despite the fact that the Conti nent has favourable weather conditi ons that would support large-scale growing of the crop for commercial purposes. Presently, majority of the primary growers of the crop on the conti nent produce non-certi fi ed organic Sesame but which meets the specifi c requirements for organic Sesame. Recently released varieti es of the crop, i.e. NCRIBEN-01M, NCRIBEN-02M, NCRIBEN-03L and Ex-Sudan (exoti c variety) readily meet the premium quality requirements for export (i.e. 1000 seed weight>3.0 g, 40- 0% oil content and pearly-white seed colour). This paper presents data on the agronomic performance of these varieti es.