Evaluation of white seeded sesame (Sesamum indicium L.) genotypes on growth and yield performance in Menit Goldya Woreda of West Omo Zone, SWE

Abstract

Sesame is the second export crop next to coffee in annual export, indicating the highest 14% of the total world export of the crop. In Africa, Sudan is the major sesame producer, followed by Nigeria, Somalia, Uganda and Ethiopia. But lack of well-adapted varieties are one of the bottleneck production problems that account for low yield and small areas cropped to the nation. Thus it is essential to evaluate such genotypes, which have high yield potential and are suitable to local environmental conditions. Therefore, field experiments were conducted at west Omo zone during 2019/20 main cropping seasons at one location of West- the Omo zone, southwest Ethiopia. The location was Menit Goldiya districts of West Omo Zone, through evaluation and selection of high-yielding sesame varieties. The study comprised of five improved and one local sesame varieties laid out in RCBD with three replications at each location. The growth and yield data were collected and analyzed by using SAS Version 9.3 statistical software. The result of the study revealed that all of the parameters considered were significantly (p < 0.01) affected by varieties on both years. Accordingly, at Menit Goldiya for, all parameters in both years and the combined analysis over the years indicated that maximum plant height, number of primary branches per plant, number of capsules per plant, thousand seed weights in grams and seed yield were observed for the Humera-1 variety. Likewise, the shortest days to flowering, early maturing, the highest length of capsule bearing zone, the maximum number of capsules per plant, the highest number of seeds per capsule and the maximum seed yield (8.13 Qu/ha) were observed for the Humera-1 variety in 2019/2020 growing seasons. Based on the mean total seed yield of locations and different yield evaluation methods, a high-yielding variety was identified. Accordingly, the Humera-1 variety performed best on both years. Therefore, this variety can play a vital role in food self-sufficiency and food security of the south-western region and it should be widely distributed to farmers of the testing locations and similar areas of the region.