Growing Sesame (Til) in Gujarat

Updated 2026-07-13 · Region guide

Gujarat sits in the Gujarat Plains & Hills (Saurashtra) with semi-arid to arid and sandy-loam, black soil, coastal alluvium. Saurashtra sandy loams make it a top groundnut and cotton state. Here's how sesame (til) — a Kharif & summer crop — fits, and how to grow it well here.

Is Gujarat good for growing sesame (til)?

When to sow sesame (til) in Gujarat

Sow in Kharif Jun–Jul; summer Feb and harvest around 80–95 days later. The crop takes about 80–95 days. In Gujarat's semi-arid to arid, the window matters more than anything else you do: ~800 mm (variable) rainfall and wells + Narmada canal mean a late Kharif & summer sowing runs sesame (til) into the wrong weather at its most sensitive stage.

Where sesame (til) actually grows in Gujarat

Saurashtra is the belt — Amreli, Rajkot, Bhavnagar, Junagadh, Botad, Surendranagar, Jamnagar, Porbandar and Morbi — plus Banaskantha and Patan in the north and Kutch. Gujarat is unusual in growing a large SUMMER (unalu) sesame crop on well water from February, on top of the kharif crop.

Where it is sold: Rajkot, Gondal, Amreli, Junagadh, Mahuva and Jamnagar are the yards, and this is India's sesame EXPORT gateway — hulling and cleaning units around Rajkot and Jamnagar feed Kandla and Mundra with white sesame bound for Japan, Korea, the EU and the Gulf. Those buyers, not the mandi, define the top grade.

The local risk to plan for: This is the residue state. Japan and the EU reject sesame on pesticide residue, so what you spray in the last weeks decides whether your seed earns the export price or drops to the domestic crush price — a gap no amount of extra yield makes up. Summer sesame also runs entirely on well water, which Saurashtra does not always have.

Best sesame (til) varieties for Gujarat

Grown in Gujarat:

• Gujarat Til-2 (GT-2)
• Gujarat Til-3 (GT-3; Saurashtra kharif, ~84–88 days)
• Gujarat Til-4 (GT-4)
• RT-346
• RT-351

Confirm the variety is notified for Gujarat — on sandy-loam, black soil, coastal alluvium under wells + Narmada canal, a variety bred for a different zone will underperform whatever the seed packet claims. Your Gujarat KVK or agriculture officer holds the current shortlist.

Typical yield & price

Typical yield here is around 3–6 quintal/acre. The government MSP is ₹8,635/quintal; local mandi rates vary, so check YieldAI for today's live Gujarat price.

Common problems in Gujarat

The pests and diseases to scout for:

• leaf webber / capsule borer — and the temptation to spray it late is exactly what costs you the export grade
• phyllody spread by jassids
• Macrophomina root and stem rot in the hot summer crop
• whitefly and jassids building through the summer crop on well water

semi-arid to arid conditions shape which of these bite hardest each season — scout early and act while a problem is small. YieldAI can identify a pest or disease from a photo of your crop.

Key practices

• Stop spraying well before harvest and keep records — export buyers test for residue, and a clean lot is worth more than a big one here
• Ask your huller or exporter for their residue and purity spec BEFORE you plan the crop, not at the mandi gate
• Summer sesame is a well-water crop — size the area to your water, because a failure at flowering wastes the whole investment
• Keep the seed clean and unmixed: export white sesame is bought on uniformity, and a few off-colour seeds downgrade the lot