Sesame seed, popularly called beninseed, is one of the cash crops that mostly attract the attention of farmers because of the quick money those cultivating it make after harvest.
Many rural farmers, especially women, cultivate the crop in large quantities to make a living.
In the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), many communities transport sesame to Kwali market for sale, from where trailers load the commodity to parts of the country.
The market has also helped in engaging some unemployed youths who load and offload the commodity. Food vendors also make brisk business.
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Daily Trust on Sunday further gathered that 75 per cent of sesame farmers are women due to its ‘easy’ cultivation and harvest process.
The planting season of the crop mostly takes place between September and October when the rains are subsiding, and its harvest starts from the end of October.
It was also gathered that it is at the peak of harvest that farmers smile to the banks after selling the crop.
Speaking with our reporter, Mrs Rabi Usman, a native of Kilankwa community, a sesame farmer who brought a large quantity of the commodity to the market in Kwali, said she had been into farming for over 15 years.
Mrs Usman, who said she had achieved a lot from sesame farming, said she was able to build a house and bought two pick-up vans through the venture.
She said she always engaged the services of labourers in her 25-hectare farm.
“I think the major challenge of sesame farming is that if you are not lucky, thieves will invade your farm at night and harvest the crop because there is a lot of money in it. In fact, some farmers lost their crops overnight as thieves came and harvested them,” she said.
She said a big bag of sesame cost between N80,000 and N120,000 this year, unlike last year when a medium bag of the commodity was sold between N60,000 and N70,000.
Ayuba Daniel from Paiko community in Gwagwalada Area Council said he had been into sesame farming for many years and had achieved a lot, including building a house and sponsoring his children in school.
Daniel said, “To God be the glory for this year’s harvest because the price has increased. Last year, I sold a bag of sesame at N70,000, but this year, it is between N80,000 and N100,000 per bag.”
The chairman of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) chapter of the Sesame Seed Traders Association of Nigeria (SSTAN), Alhaji Abdulyakeen Hassan, said members of the association had over 150 members and were responsible for conveying the commodity on trailers to industries across the country. He, however, lamented that lack of government support had been a major challenge to them.
He further said the FCT sesame market had existed for 10 years, adding that it is one of the most organised markets of the crop after Dawanau in Kano State.
He said that over 150 trailers came to the market every harvest season to load sesame to the far North and industries across the country.
“Most of the people that control the sesame business are foreigners,” he also said.
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