Enhancing Sesame Productivity and Profitability with Cluster Front Line Demonstrations in Andhra Pradesh's Nellore District, India

Sesame (Sesamum indicum L.) is one of the most important oil crops grown in the Nellore district of Andhra Pradesh along with groundnut. Sesame productivity in the district is low and efforts have been made to increase productivity and area by using high-yielding varieties along with integrated crop management (ICM) practices. In the farmer's field, ICM practices like sowing of improved variety (YLM 66), seed treatment, providing sticky traps to monitor sucking pest vectors, application of neem oil at flowering, spraying of monocrotophos at capsule development stage are used. Insect control and carbendazim spray for leaf spot control have been demonstrated. The results showed that in 2021-22 and 2022-23, seed yield improved by 9.9 and 11.2 percent compared to farmers' practices. Economically, demonstration practices have been found to produce higher net profit per hectare over the years compared to farmer practices. In 2021-2022 and 2022-2023, the B:C ratio was 2.76 and 3.08. To increase oilseed production, farmers in Nellore should adopt economically viable techniques based on the technology rate percentage, which ranges from 21.0% to 27.0%.