Growth and Yield Performance of Sesame (Sesamum indicum L.) Varieties at Varying Levels of Inter-row Spacing in Northern Part of Sokoto, Nigeria

Field trials were conducted at Dry Land Teaching and Research Farm Usmanu Danfodiyo University Sokoto during the 2015 and 2016 rainy seasons to study the Growth performance of sesame (Sesamum indicum L.) varieties at varying levels of inter-row spacing in the Northern part of Sokoto. The treatments consisted of four levels of inter-row spacing (40, 50, 60 and 70 cm) and three sesame varieties (Ex-Sudan, Gulbarga Local White and Tumkur Local Black). The treatments were arranged in a randomised complete block design (RCBD) replicated three times with factorial combinations of inter-row spacing and varieties. Results of the study indicated that inter-row spacing level of 70 cm consistently recorded the highest values for all the parameters studied. Similarly, the use of Tumkur Local Black variety of sesame showed superiority among the treatments in all the growth characters investigated except for leaf length per plant, leaf diameter per plant and leaf area per plant where Ex-Sudan and Gulbarga Local White varieties respectively recorded the highest values. Besides, Gulbarga local white sesame variety had the highest seed yield when compared with the two other varieties. From the finding of this research, it could be concluded that Tumkur Local Black sesame variety planted at 70 cm inter-row spacing gave the highest growth performance compared to Ex-Sudan and Gulbarga Local white while Gulbarga Local white gave the highest yield performance of the crop under the same conditions.