The Netherlands Development Organization (SNV), a Dutch international non-governmental organization operating in the country, has engaged some 1,000 farmers in four districts to cultivate sesame crop on a pilot basis.

The project, which introduced three varieties of the crop this year on some 1,000 acres of land, was expected to produce 50,000 tons of the crop for sale to Olam Ghana, a cash crop marketing company for export.

The sesame is a cash crop with high nutritional value which could be used to produce oil and cake for consumption. It also has a huge international market but in Ghana it is mostly cultivated in the three northern regions mostly for household consumption.

Mr Issahaku Zakaria, Sesame Project Manager of the SNV, said this at Yeteli in the Chereponi District of the Northern Region during a field visit on Tuesday to sensitize farmers about the economic advantage of the crop and to woo more farmers to take advantage of it to improve their economic fortunes.

He said the organization was providing seeds, inputs, plough the fields and give technology to the farmers to ensure that they produce quality products for the market and that some 10,000 farmers were going to be supported during next year’s farming season.

Mr Zakaria said the crop had similar economic advantage like any other cash crop such as cocoa and that it intended using innovative technologies and improved seeds to target smallholder rural poor farmers to increase their incomes and nutritional values.

He said the sesame seeds and meals were high in calcium, phosphorus and iron and well supplied with the vitamin thiamine, riboflavin and niacin, adding that   “the whole plant is an important ingredient for the preparation of aphrodisiac…the leaf is used as a remedy bronchial trouble”.

Mr Yussif Amankwa, Branch Operation Manager of Edible Nuts of Olam Ghana, said the company was ready to buy any quantity of the crop farmers would produce this year.

He assured the farmers of the best price for their produce and advised them to adhere to quality standards since the company would not compromise on quality assurance.

Mr Abdul-Halim Abubakari, a Lecturer at the Horticultural Department of the University for Development Studies (UDS), said due to the economic advantage of the crop, it had adopted it for field studies for students.

He suggested that the cluster-value-chain approach should be adopted to obtain good productivity levels byfarmers.

After the field visits most of the farmers expressed optimism that they were going to gain positively from their investments.

GNA