Sesame production constraints, variety traits preference in the Southeastern Tanzania: Implication for genetic improvement

Abstract

Despite the prominence of sesame production in household and national economies, its productivity remains quite low (405.6 kg/ha) in comparison to the potential output of 1500 kg/ha. Low sesame production threatens the employment of 481,115 smallholder producers in Tanzania's sesame sub-sector. In view of that, to enhance sesame productivity, the present study lured to find out what restrictions upset sesame cultivation and spot farmers' desired traits for sesame cultivars in southeastern Tanzania. A semi-structured questionnaire and interview checklist were adopted to obtain data from 240 sesame cultivators. The findings revealed that the key impediments inhibiting sesame production in the studied regions included the prevalence of insect-pests (23.6%), diseases (15.7%), drought (10.1%), weed infestation (9.9%), insufficient capital (7.9%), high seed costs (7.6%), and a dearth of enhanced seeds (6.8%). Furthermore, according to sesame growers, the most important criteria in sesame variety selection were high yielding (45.7%), resistance to insect-pests and diseases (20.8%), early maturity (15.4%), appealing seed color (8.8%), and drought tolerance (6.3%). Meanwhile, it was reported that the market valued sesame cultivars with white grain colour, large grain size, clean seeds, and high oil content. Hence, the present study recommends enhanced breeding for improved sesame variety development with the desired traits by farmers and post-farm operators.

Keywords

• Sesame production constraints
• Farmers' preferred traits
• Southeastern
• Tanzania
• Genetic improvement