Sesame: the Underexploited Organic Oilseed Crop

Sesame (Sesamum indicum L.) is an important oilseed crop that ranks sixth among vegetable oils worldwide. Asia and Africa respectively account for 2.55 and 0.95 of the 3.66 million tons produced worldwide. However, Africa’s net export of the commodity is just 38% of its production, despite the fact that the Continent has favourable weather conditions that would support large-scale growing of the crop for commercial purposes. Presently, majority of the primary growers of the crop on the continent produce non-certified organic Sesame but which meets the specific requirements for organic Sesame. Recently released varieties of the crop, i.e. NCRIBEN-01M, NCRIBEN-02M, NCRIBEN-03L and Ex-Sudan (exotic 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 varieties. Key words: Sesame; Oil content; Seed expor

Oil palm growth, yield and financial returns from interplanted food crops

Maize, soyabean and pigeon pea were inter-planted with a juvenile oil palm plantation in 1999-2002 at the Teaching and Research Farm of the University of Agriculture, Abeokuta (7°15'N, 3°25', altitude 144m above sea level) to evaluate the growth of the interplanted oil palm as well as yield and overall economic returns from the inter-planted food crops. The treatments were: oil palm/maize/soyabean/pigeon pea, oil palm/maize/pigeon pea, oil palm/maize/soyabean and oil palm/maize grown with or without 125kg ha-I of a compound fertilizer N: P: K (20:10:10). Intercropping of oil palm with food crops had no significant effect on the plant height and canopy width of the oil palm, but significantly (