Inside Kwali sesame market

Unlike the Kwali Main Market which holds every four days, the sesame seed market holds daily with influx of people, especially sesame farmers who bring the produce to sell to customers who are always on ground to buy. Aso Chronicle gathered that 70 per cent of sesame farmers are women due to its “easy” cultivation […]

Unlike the Kwali Main Market which holds every four days, the sesame seed market holds daily with influx of people, especially sesame farmers who bring the produce to sell to customers who are always on ground to buy.

Aso Chronicle gathered that 70 per cent of sesame farmers are women due to its “easy” cultivation and harvest process.

The planting of sesame, popularly called beniseed, mostly takes place between September and October when the rains are subsiding, and its harvest starts from the end of October.

It was also gathered that it is at the peak of the harvest that its farmers smile to the bank after selling the crop.

Mrs. Asibi Adamu, a sesame farmer, who brought a large quantity of the seed to the market in Kwali, while speaking with our reporter, said she had been into sesame farming for over 15 years.

Mrs. Adamu who said she achieved a lot from sesame cultivation, explained that she built her personal house and purchased two pick-up vans through the venture.

Mrs. Adamu, a Kwali resident, said she always engaged the services of labourers in her 15-hectare farm.

She said, “I think the major challenge of sesame farming is that if you are not the lucky type, thieves will invade your farm at night and harvest the crop because there is a lot of money in it.”

She explained that a big bag of sesame was sold for between N60,000 and N80,000.

Another sesame farmer at the Kwali market, Samuel Bizhiri, from Paiko community in Gwagwalada Area Council, said he had been into sesame farming for many years and that he had achieved a lot, especially building a house and sponsoring his children in school.

Bizhiri said, “To God be glory for the harvest of sesame this year, even though the price is down compared with that of last year. I sold a bag of sesame at N120,000 last year, but this year it was sold at between N60,000 and N70,000.”

Speaking to our reporter, the Vice Chairman of the FCT chapter of Sesame Seed Traders Association of Nigeria (SSTAN), Alhaji Abdulyakeen Hassan, said members of the association were responsible for buying the seed from farmers.

Alhaji Hassan said SSTAN which had over 150 members, conveyed the seed in trailers to industries across the country, but that lack of government support had been a major challenge.

According to him, the Kwali sesame market had been existing for 10 years, and that it was one of the organised markets of the crop after Dawanau Sesame Market in Kano State.

He explained that over 150 trailers came to the market every harvest season to load sesame to the far North and industries across the country.

He further said, “Most of the people that control the sesame business are foreigners.”