Sesame is cultivated in Ukraine only by the Askaniy State Agricultural Experimental Station of the Institute of Irrigated Agriculture of the NAAS. Given the great demand for sesame seeds, the station staff decided to expand the crop.

In the current climatic conditions of the south of Ukraine, sesame can be successfully cultivated, although it did not have time to ripen in our country before, said Vera Konovalova, deputy director for scientific work at the Askaniy experimental station.

Sesame cultivation can be attractive to farmers engaged in vegetable growing and having a drip irrigation plant. The experimental station is ready to cooperate with these farmers, providing technologies for the purpose of popularization and dissemination of culture, the researcher says.

Today, all sesame on the shelves of Ukrainian stores is an imported product. The price of sesame seeds produced in India reaches 70 UAH / kg when packaged in bags. From 1 ha in Ukraine you can get 1-1.5 tons of seed crop.

Currently, in addition to the Askaniya experimental station, no one else grows sesame in Ukraine. This year, station employees planted a 2.5 ha crop. Next year they plan to increase sown area under sesame seeds and eventually get to processing raw materials, Vera Konovalova shared information.