Sesame harvest loss caused by sesame seed bug, Elasmolomus sordidus F. at Kafta-Humera sesame fields

Abstract

Sesame is an important cash crop in Ethiopia. In Humera, farmers are largely dependent on this important cash crop for their living. The production rate is, however, lower than the national average. There could be many factors for its reduced productivity, but pests especially sesame seed bug is one of the reasons. In this study, sesame seed weight loss due to sesame seed bug was determined at field and laboratory conditions. At both conditions, there was significant seed weight loss when the packaging materials were unlined jute and unlined polythene bags, although the loss at field conditions was severe. In both setups, there was small seed weight loss when the packaging materials were lined. This could be due to moisture loss from the seeds because the bugs could not penetrate the lined bags. From these, farmers are advised to use lined bags for storage and transport the harvested seeds to their stores as soon as possible.

Scoping study on Ethiopian sesame value chain

“…However, farmers currently harvest less than 600 kg (or 0.6 ton)/ha from their traditional production system. The studies by Berhe et al (2008) and Kefale et al (2021) indicate that farmers had poor awareness about and were reluctant to use sesame pest and diseases control measures. The adoption of machinery is at low level and, when available, it is limited to ploughing or land preparation activities.…”

“…According to Abebe (2016) weather fluctuation creates favorable conditions for the incidence of pests and diseases. The most important diseases affecting sesame production are bacterial blight (Xanthomonas sesami), phyllody (Phytoplasma transmitted by a vector), powdery mildew, wilt (Fusarium exosporium f. sesami), leaf spot (Pseudomonas sesami) and other viral diseases (Azanaw, 2018;Berhe et al, 2008). The major pests affecting sesame production are webworm (Antigstra catalaunalis), seed bug (Elasmolomus), gall midge (Asphondilia sesami), green vegetable bug (Nezara viridula), grasshoppers, African bollworm (Helicoverpa armigera) and crickets (Germew et al, 2012).…”

The influence of climate change on the sesame yield in North Gondar, North Ethiopia: Application Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) time series model

“…Sesame production in 2017–2020 was predicted to cover 171,417 hectares with a yield of 65,207 tons, mostly from three regions (East Wellega, Western Tigray, and North Gondar), according to data released by the Ethiopian Export Promotion Agency [ 11 ] in 2014 [ 12 ]. Oromia, Benshangul Gumuz, Amhara, and Tigray are Ethiopia's principal sesame-producing regions [ 13 ].…”

Effects of Tephrosia vogelii formulation with rabbit urine on insect pests and pollinators of sesame in Singida, Tanzania

“…These insect pests affect the sesame crop at the different stages of plant growth, pose significant damage to the crop resulting in immense losses in sesame yield (Thangjam & Vastrad, 2018). Previous studies, e.g., Berhe et al (2011) and Oerke (2006),…”