तिल: India's smallholder export oilseed
Sesame or til (Sesamum indicum) is grown on roughly 1.5 million hectares producing about 0.65 million tonnes (DES 2024-25). The 2025-26 MSP is₹9,846/q (PIB 28 May 2025) — the highest of any oilseed — reflecting CACP's recognition that til is a smallholder crop on marginal lands with thin yields but high commercial value. India is the world's second-largest sesame exporter (after Sudan), shipping ~3 LMT annually to Japan, Korea, Middle East and Europe at $1,800-2,200 per tonne for premium hulled white sesame. Gujarat-Saurashtra white sesame holds GI registration and is recognised globally for bold-grain quality.
Geographic distribution — a fragmented smallholder crop
Uttar Pradesh (18%): Bundelkhand (Jhansi, Banda, Hamirpur) and eastern UP (Mirzapur, Sonbhadra). Kharif rainfed til on light alluvial-laterite. Yields 3-6 q/ha. TC-25 (Tilhan Centre-25) widely grown.
Madhya Pradesh (16%): Bundelkhand and Malwa kharif til. Yields 4-7 q/ha. JT-2 (Jawahar Tilhan-2) JNKVV variety popular.
Rajasthan (16%): Pali, Sirohi, Bhilwara kharif rainfed. Yields 3-6 q/ha. RT-346 widely adopted.
West Bengal (14%): Murshidabad, Birbhum summer til after rabi mustard. Yields 5-8 q/ha irrigated.
Gujarat (8%): Banaskantha, Patan kharif til + summer til. GT-2 (Gujarat Til-2) the export-quality bold-grain variety. Junagadh APMC sets export premium prices.
Karnataka (5%): Tumakuru, Chitradurga kharif rainfed til.
Variety pipeline — duration vs export quality
TC-25 (CSAUAT Kanpur, 2002) — 90-day UP-MP workhorse, 7-9 q/ha potential, black/brown seed for oil. RT-346 (Rajasthan, 2010) — 90-95 days, 7-10 q/ha, drought-tolerant. JT-2 (Jawahar Tilhan-2) (JNKVV Jabalpur, 2008) — 85 days, 8-10 q/ha, MP/Bundelkhand. GT-2 (Gujarat Til-2)(JAU Junagadh, 2009) — 90 days, white bold-grain export-quality, 8-10 q/ha. White sesame from Gujarat (and to a lesser extent UP) commands ₹15,000-18,000/q in export mandi vs ₹10,000-12,000/q for black-grain oil-pressing markets. Krishna and Madhavi (WBL series) are West Bengal popular cultivars.
Agronomy — small seed, careful planting
Kharif sowing: June 15 to July 15 in UP/MP/RJ; summer sowing: February 15 to March 15 in WB/OD. Seed rate is low — 4-6 kg/ha at 30 × 10 cm — because sesame seed is small (~3 g per 1000 seeds). Seed mixed with FYM or fine sand for uniform broadcasting. Nutrient requirement modest: 40:30:20 NPK kg/ha. Sulphur 25 kg/ha responds well in light soils — lifts oil content from 44-46% to 48-50%. Rainfed kharif crop relies on monsoon; summer crop in WB needs 3-4 irrigations. The FAO-56 Kc (0.35 / 1.10 / 0.25) gives seasonal ETc of ~340 mm.
Phyllody — the mycoplasma curse
Sesame phyllody is a phytoplasma disease vectored by the leafhopperOrosius albicinctus. Infected plants show floral parts converted to leafy structures — no seed forms. Yield loss in phyllody-prone tracts can reach 50%. Management is leafhopper-vector control via dimethoate 30EC or thiamethoxam 25WG sprays at 30 and 45 DAS, plus roguing infected plants and rotation away from sesame for 2-3 years. Leaf-and-pod roller (Antigastra catalaunalis) is the second major pest — caterpillars web pods shut and feed inside; chlorpyriphos 20EC controls but resistance is emerging. Cercospora leaf spot is the principal fungal disease.
Harvest and the export-quality discipline
Sesame harvest is exacting: pods shatter on full maturity (a wild-type carryover that modern breeding has only partially fixed via "shatter-resistant" lines). The standard practice is to cut plants at 75-80% pod maturity, stack into bundles for 8-10 day post-harvest drying, then thresh by manual beating onto a tarpaulin. Post-thresh cleaning (winnowing + sortex grading) determines export-quality eligibility — white sesame requires < 1% admixture and ≥ 99.95% purity for Japanese export contracts. Gujarat's Junagadh-Amreli cleaning-and-grading clusters (with ~80 small-scale sortex units) are India's premier export-prep ecosystem.
Economics — the highest MSP, lowest yield paradox
CACP places sesame C2 cost at ~₹6,800-7,500/q (2022-23 crop year). Against MSP ₹9,846/q, C2 margin is ~31-45%. NAFED PSS active in MP, UP, RJ at MSP, but procurement is thin (~1.5 LMT in 2024-25) because the open mandi already prices above MSP for most lots. Junagadh export-quality white-til mandi modal: ₹15,000-18,000/q during November-February for grade-A bold lots. UP-Bundelkhand black-til oil pressing: ₹10,000-12,000/q.
A Junagadh GJ farmer with 1 ha GT-2 summer til yielding 8 q at ₹16,000/q export grade: gross ₹1,28,000, cash cost ~₹14,000, net cash margin ₹1,14,000/ha (~₹46,000/acre) — for a 90-day crop using residual mustard moisture and one life-saving irrigation. The per-day return is among the highest of any oilseed in India. A Banda Bundelkhand smallholder with 1 ha TC-25 kharif yielding 5 q at ₹10,500/q oil-mill rate: gross ₹52,500, cash cost ~₹8,000, net margin ₹44,500/ha (~₹18,000/acre) — modest in absolute terms but the highest cash return available on light Bundelkhand soils.
Schemes and the export-export tilt
NMEO-OS targets sesame area expansion via summer-til scaling in WB/OD/Bihar rice-fallow and improvement of Bundelkhand kharif yields through TC-25 and JT-2 multiplication. APEDA supports sesame export with infrastructure (sortex clusters, GAP-certified FPO networks). PM-KISAN, PMFBY (2% kharif premium) and KCC apply standardly. The Rajasthan and MP state oilseed mission schemes provide additional ₹3,000/ha cash incentive on FPO-channelled sales.
The path forward — yield gap closure
India's national sesame yield (~4.3 q/ha) is among the lowest in the world; Sudan achieves 6.5 q/ha, China 12 q/ha. The yield gap closes through (i) shatter-resistant ICAR-IIOR pipeline lines that allow mechanical harvest, (ii) phyllody-resistant lines (HT-1, HT-2 in advanced trial), and (iii) sulphur-fertiliser uptake to push oil content from 44% to 50%+. If national yield rises to 7 q/ha by 2030 — feasible — output crosses 10 LMT and India's sesame export competitiveness sharpens dramatically. For smallholders on marginal lands, sesame remains the rare crop where the highest MSP among oilseeds genuinely matters because output volumes are small and the price floor actually binds.