ABSTRACT
Sesame (Sesamum indicum L.) is an important, traditional oilseed crop grown in tropical and temperate zones. In India it is grown on an area of 1.85 million hectares (ha), and India’s production is about 628,000 metric tons (T) (FAOstat 2006). There is an urgent need to increase oilseed production to meet the needs of an increasing Indian population, to assure food and nutritional security (Hegde 1998; Swaminathan 1989). It is projected that India’s total edible oil consumption will increase 5.5% to 6.0% per annum. Assuming India’s population to be 1300 million and per capita oil consumption 16 kg per annum by 2020, the edible oil requirement will be 20.8 million metric tons (T), equal to 60 million T oilseeds (Lavanya 2005). Groundnut, rapeseed-mustard, soybean, and sesame rank highest, in that order, in India’s domestic edible oilseed production. The dramatic transformation of the Indian oilseed economy from net importer status in the 1980s to self-sufficient and net exporter during the early 1990s was heralded a “yellow revolution” (Kiresur 1999). However, India became a net importer of edible oils again in the late 1990s.
