Authors:

Abstract

Despite the high demand for sesame for both local and industrial consumption both at home and abroad, this potential money-spinning cash crop commodity is almost an orphan crop in a country (Nigeria) that is facing economic crises owing to dwindling price of the mono-economy which it solely depends on for economic survival. The yarning of the present government for an alternative source of foreign earnings viz. cash crops motivated this research with the aim of advising policymakers to take the advantage of this money-spinning cash crop and unearth its’ potential in order to bridge its’ wide-gap foreign exchange earning deficit. Dated data sourced from FAO database for a spanned period of 56 years (1961-2017) covering production, area, yield and producer prices were used. The collected data were analyzed using both descriptive and inferential statistics with the aim of coming-up with valid inferences. The inferential statistics used were Growth model, Instability index, Instantaneous decomposition model, Hazell’s decomposition model, Koyck’s distributed lag model and ARIMA model. The empirical evidence showed that the performance of the sesame economy has not been impressive throughout the policy regime periods witnessed by the economy which owed to poor institutional supports by the policymakers which invariably affected the viability of this cash crop sub-sector, thus causing the country colossal revenue loss from foreign exchange earnings which run into millions of dollars as their exist potential readily available market for sesame products. Furthermore, the performance of the country’s sesame production even in the next decade ahead will not be impressive if the internal sesame supply chain will be largely determined by the market forces as the current sesame market is been strangled by market imperfection owing to sharp market practices perpetuated by the middlemen in the supply chain. Therefore, the study recommends the need for provision of adequate institutional incentive supports by the major stakeholders in order to make the sesame sub-sector a potential foreign exchange earning which will serve as one of the viable potential alternatives to fossil fuel earning which is dwindle due to gradual paradigm shift from fossil fuel energy to green energy and the use of black gold (crude oil) as an instrument for political tango among the superpower blocks in the world.

Keywords: Sesame, Growth trend, Forecast, Nigeria

How to Cite: Sadiq, M.S., Singh, I.P. and Ahmad, M.M., 2020. Sesame as a potential cash crop: an alternative source of foreign exchange earnings for Nigeria. Sri Lanka Journal of Food and Agriculture, 6(1), pp.7–21. DOI: http://doi.org/10.4038/sljfa.v6i1.78