Sesame (sesame) is a plant from the group of agricultural products, which is very popular, easy to consume and widely used in everyday nutrition. It is also a raw material for the food and confectionery industry.

The special advantage of sesame is that it can be cultivated in the short term, is easy to grow, requires little investment, has very good drought tolerance, is less susceptible to pests and diseases, and yields up to tens of millions of dongs/ha.

Get the season, price of summer fall sesame harvest

This year’s summer-autumn sesame harvest in Nghe An Province saw nearly 4,000 hectares sown, concentrating on Dien Chau, Nghi Loc, Quynh Luu, Cua Lo City and Hung Nguyen districts. At that time, the farmers in the villages went to the fields to harvest sesame.

Mr. Duong Van Nam – director of Dong Thinh Agricultural Cooperative (Dien Chau District) said that in this year’s summer-autumn sesame harvest, the cooperative sown 120 ha of black and yellow sesame varieties and some V6 varieties (white sesame). Japanese). Sesame trees are sown immediately after harvesting peanuts and spring vegetables, when the soil is still moist enough.

From the start of the summer-autumn harvest to date, Nghe An has had almost no rain, persistent hot sun and strong southwest winds, making Sesame a tree that is highly resistant to drought and heat, but is still partially affected in growth and development. Therefore, the yield of this year’s summer-autumn sesame harvest is only 43-45 kg/Sao (8.6-9 quintals/ha) on average. But in turn, the price of sesame sold at home rose to VND 45,000-50,000/kg this season, higher than previous sesame crops of VND 5,000-10,000/kg.

Calculating an average of 1 ha of summer-autumn sesame gives an income of about 45 million VND in about 60 days from sowing to harvesting. This is a very good income, there are fewer trees than sesame, especially in the hot season and severe drought like this year’s summer-autumn harvest.

Mr. Le The Hieu, head of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Dien Chau District, said that the whole district sown nearly 2,000 ha of sesame in this year’s summer-autumn harvest, mainly in Dien Trung (350 ha) and Dien Thinh (300 ha). , and Dien Hung communities. (200 ha), Dien Thanh (120 ha)… The average sesame yield is 40-45 kg/Sao (8-9 quintals/ha).

Sesame is a plant that is highly resistant to drought and heat. This year’s summer-autumn harvest is hot and severely droughty. Therefore, from the very beginning of the harvest, the provincial people’s committee advocated that farmers in the highlands, sandy and light coastal areas (called lowlands) grow sesame heavily.

Compared to other years, the yield of this year’s summer autumn sesame crop in Dien Chau is not higher due to the extreme heat and drought, but in return, the price of this year’s summer autumn sesame crop is high. Currently, the purchase price of sesame traders is between VND 45,000-50,000/kg for black sesame and VND 55,000/kg for yellow sesame and V6 sesame.

The investment for sesame is very small, only about 10 kg of sesame seeds cost 450,000 VND, 60 kg of NPK fertilizer 15-5-20 is 540,000 VND… minus the cost, although it is a year of severe weather, but farmers still have a profit of at least 45 million VND/ha. It’s true that the tree is “fun, eat right,” as farmers in Dien Trung commune often say.

In the countryside along the Lam River in Hung Nguyen district, Ba Thi Dung, in charge of the district’s Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, said people here usually continued to cultivate corn or green beans after spring crops were harvested in recent years. But ahead of this year’s summer-autumn harvest, which is expected to be a year of much heat and severe drought, the provincial people’s committee has advocated expanding the sesame acreage, because sesame is a tree with good drought tolerance and a short time for an early harvest, preventing heavy rain at the end of the season from causing crop losses.

In this year’s summer-autumn sesame harvest, the entire Hung Nguyen District has planted nearly 400 hectares of sesame in the communities along the Lam River. Of these, it is concentrated in the 80-hectare Chau Nhan township, the 30-hectare Long Linh township, and scattered in some other townships. Although there was intense heat and prolonged drought from seed to harvest, the sesame here was still able to reap a good harvest, with an average yield of 9-10 quintals/ha.

Based on this result, the Hung Nguyen County People’s Committee said that next year’s summer-autumn harvest will direct the cooperatives to expand the sesame acreage.

Optimal choice for drought areas

Sesame is an easy-to-grow crop, has a short growing season (65–70 days for summer-fall harvest), low investment costs, and is heat and drought resistant. Sesame is also a crop that protects and improves the soil very well.

In terms of economic efficiency, sesame brings people high nutritional value and is a widely used crop in domestic and overseas markets.

Sesame farmers in all regions of Nghe An province, especially in Dien Chau, Nghi Loc, Quynh Luu and Cua Lo districts, all said that the sesame yields are always at the above levels in the summer-autumn harvests. less than 40 million VND/ ha, in just 65-70 days from seed to harvest, there are very few crops that bring such high efficiency.

In order for sesame to quickly become a large-scale crop with a commercial nature and produce really great results right after the harvest of this year’s summer-fall sesame crop, it is believed that the Nghe An Provincial People’s Committee, the provincial agricultural sector and municipalities need to sum up and learn from many previous summer-fall sesame crops, and especially this year’s summer-fall sesame crop, to use them this year.

Many years of experience with the production of sesame in the summer-autumn harvest in Nghe An shows that:

The first: Sesame is the most resistant to heat and drought. Even in the hot summer, sesame plants grow well and develop well. This is because the stalk, leaves, fruits and seeds of the sesame plant contain a lot of oil and a lot of hair grows on the outside of the stalk, leaves, flowers and fruits. This is a particular advantage of sesame, because when it’s cold, the oil condenses, increasing its resistance to cold. On the contrary, when exposed to hot sun and high temperatures, the oil dilutes, thus reducing the release of water from the plant into the air.

Monday: The experience of farmers in Dien Chau District shows that sesame farmers need to take good measures right at the beginning of the sowing season, so that sesame plants can sprout quickly after sowing and then continue to grow and develop well: before going to the field to pick spring crops (peanuts , Corn, Vegetables) you need to prepare seeds for each stick (500m2) from 4 horns (500m2).

All harvested spring crops can be temporarily left at the edge of the field. Then, having just harvested the spring crop, take the sesame seeds mixed with powdered soil or sand and spread them evenly over the surface of the bed. Next, use a harrow, a harrow, and another harrow along the bed 2-3 times to bury the sesame seeds in the soil.

This way you ensure that the planting time is as early as possible, right when the soil is still moist enough for the seeds to germinate easily. If you sow slowly, i.e. when the soil no longer has enough moisture, the sesame seeds have to wait until it rains and the soil has enough moisture to germinate.

Tuesday: Harvesting sesame in the summer-fall harvest is best when 80-85% of the fruit is ripe on the tree. Harvest by cutting the whole plant from bottom to top, take home and incubate for another 2-3 days, then allow to dry and lightly beat to separate the seeds. When the sesame is too ripe to be harvested, the sesame pods will burst, causing the seeds to fall to the ground and severely reducing the sesame yield.

Wednesday: In order to actively expand the sesame acreage, summer-autumn cultivation or spring cultivation in the coming years, communities with production plans need to clearly identify which acreage needs to be converted to sesame sowing. High land, land with difficult water source of irrigation such as sandy and sandy areas along the coast, along rivers; the land at the foot of mountains and hills…

The impact of climate change is making weather trends more complicated, increasing the possibility of heat and drought. Therefore, switching from dry growing to drought-tolerant crops, including sesame, is the most sensible and effective direction.

The current restructuring of agricultural crops to produce high-value goods and products that are climate change-ready is a revolution to change the thinking of agricultural production, leading to greater economic efficiency and sustainability. This is not an easy task.

Therefore, in order for sesame to become a large-area, large-yield, high-efficiency crop in the next year, the participation of the entire political system, in which agriculture and farmers’ associations play a key role, is required, both to organize and direct the implementation, and to mobilize farmers to respond to the crop restructuring policy with maximum efficiency.