Sesame Cultivation

Vernacular Names:

• Til – Hindi, Assam, Bengali, Punjab, Bengali, Marathi

• Tal- Gujarati

• Nuvullu, Manchi nuvvulu- Telugu

• Ellu- Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada

 Introduction: 

• It is the oldest indigenous oilseed crop.

• This crop grows in almost every part of the country.

• In India, It has the longest history of cultivation.

• India is ranked first with 19.47 lakh ha area and 8.66 lakh tonnes production.

• In India, the average yield of sesame is less as compared to other countries.

• The main reason is the Poor management of rainfed cultivation in marginal and submarginal lands and input starved condition.

• For increasing the productivity level of sesame, better varieties and agro production technologies have been developed. 

Location:

• This crop is grown in around all parts of the country.

• More than 85% of production comes from West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh. 

Weather Requirement

• This crop can grow in almost every large or small area of the states.

• It can be fertilized up till the latitude of 1600mm and in India it is 1200m

• It requires high temperature during the life cycle.

• The maximum temperature required during the life cycle is between 25-35 degrees.

• If the temperature goes more than 40°c the hot winds will reduce the oil content.

• If the temperature is above 45°c or less than 15°c, there will be a major reduction in yield.

 SEASON

• Grown as kharif crops in arid and semi-arid tropics and rabi crops in cooler areas.

VARIETIES

Soil Requirement:

• Alkaline or acidic soils are not suitable for this crop.

• It can be grown in a wide range of soils

• Well drained light to medium textured soils are preferable.

• Optimum pH range is 5.5 - 8.0 

Seed Rate:

• To achieve the required plant population 5kg/ha of seed rate is sufficient.

Seed Treatment:

• To prevent seed borne diseases use seed treated with Bavistin 2.0g/kg seed.

• If there is a bacterial leaf spot disease, soak seeds for 30 minutes in 0.025% solution of Agrimycin-100 preceding to seeding.

Land Preparation:

• Plough2-4 times and break the clods to prepare the soil into a fine tilth.

• Then, broadcast seeds evenly.

• For easy seeding, evenly distributed seed is mixed with either sand or dry soil.

• The ratio of well seized farm yard manure is 1:20.

• To cover the seed in the soil use harrow, followed by wooden plank.

SPACING

• Spacing of 30cm is required in both between rows and plants.

• Seeds are broadcasted for rice fallows and thinned to maintain 11 plants/m 2.

SOWING

• Sowing the seeds in lines is preferred.

• Seeds should be mixed with four times its volume of dry sand and equally along the furrows drop the mixture in which fertilizers are applied.

• Seeds should be sown 3cm deep and covered with soil.

• The maximum time of sowing for VRI (SV) 1 sesame is second fortnight of February to first fortnight of March under summer irrigated conditions. 

IRRIGATION

• Though the crop is grown in rainfed condition. But, when facilities are available, after thinning operation crop can be irrigated to field capacity within an interval of 15-20 days.

• Irrigation should be stopped just before the pods begin to mature.

• During the critical stages, surface irrigation should be 3cm deep which means 4-5 leaves, branching, flowering and pod formation will increase the yield by 35-52%.

• In the vegetative phase (4-5 leaf stage or branching) and in the reproductive phase (at flowering or pod formation two irrigations of 3cm depth each will be the best. Maximum yield and water use efficiency will be registered.

• In single irrigation it is best given in the reproductive phase.

Plant Protection:

• With carbaryl 10% remove affected leaves and shoots and dust to control leaf and pod caterpillar.

• To manage the incidence of leaf and pod caterpillar, pod borer infestation and phyllody incidence use Azadirachtin 0.03 per cent at 5 ml per litre spray at 7th and 20th DAS and thereafter need based application

• To prevent gall fly use preventive spray with 0.2% carbaryI.

• To control the leaf curl disease, destroyed affected sesame plants should be removed and diseased collateral hosts like chilly, tomato and zinnia.

• Plants should be removed which are affected with phyllody and don’t use seeds from the affected plants.

 Harvesting:

• Harvesting should be done in the morning hours.

• Crops should be harvested when leaves turns yellow and start dangling and the bottom capsules turns lemon yellow by pulling the plants.

• When the leaves will fall, cut the root portion and pile them in bundles for approx. 3-4 days and spread them in the sun and beat with sticks so that the capsules opens.

• Keep repeating this for 3 days. Seeds has to be preserved which are collected on the first day for seed purposes.

Yield:

• A well harvested crop can yield 1200 - 1500kg/ha under irrigation and 800 - 1000 kg/ha under rainfed conditions.