Proceedings of the first Australian sesame workshop

The First Australian Sesame Workshop brought together researchers, agronomists, industry representatives and growers in Darwin and Katherine from 21-23 March 1995 to take stock of sesame's potential as a commercial crop in northern Australia.

These proceedings collect the papers presented across those three days, together with an overview of the workshop and the recommendations that came out of its discussion groups.

More than three decades on, the volume remains a widely used and highly regarded reference for the sesame industry, but physical copies have become increasingly difficult to source.

AgriFutures Australia has digitised the original publication so this body of work is freely accessible to growers, researchers, advisers and anyone considering sesame as a production option.

What's inside:
The proceedings are organised around the full production and value chain, including:

1. A global sesame research overview, an overview of the Australian sesame industry, and the history of sesame research and development in the Northern Territory.

2. Irrigated sesame production in northern Western Australia, sesame as a dryland food crop in west Timor, and rotation and tillage systems for north-west Australia.

3. The potential contribution of breeding to an Australian sesame industry, sesame nutrition in the semi-arid tropics, nutrient requirements, and yield in relation to plant characters and nitrogen.

4. Weed control for the NT, insect pest management, sesame diseases and their likely production impact, and the effect of soil-borne fungi on cultivar growth.

5. Interactions between machinery and crop characteristics, methods to reduce pre-harvest seed losses, reduction of harvest losses, and desiccation.

6. The role of RDCs in industry expansion, issues affecting farmer acceptance of sesame as a commercially viable crop, comparative financial risk for NT growers, the southern and central Queensland industries, national marketing opportunities, and sesame seed markets.

7. An overview of the presented papers with recommendations from discussion groups and participants, plus a full list of participants.

Who it's for:
Sesame growers and prospective growers, agronomists and advisers, researchers, and industry and regional development bodies, particularly those working in northern Australia's tropical and semi-arid production zones.