New variety of sesame seeds presented in San Pedro

Chore, IP.- This Friday, a sesame planting event was held in the María Auxiliadora neighborhood, Chore district, San Pedro department, in conjunction with the Paraguayan Institute of Agrarian Technology (IPTA) and the Korean Project of International Agriculture (Kopia). During the activity, the new short-cycle k5, k6, and k7 seeds were presented.

This new seed will benefit around 200 local producers in the first stage. The idea is to subsequently increase the number of beneficiaries until it reaches the entire department of San Pedro.

The first production would be about 20 to 25 thousand hectares. If the production and cultivation are good, about 1,200 kilos would be harvested per hectare, according to the director of experimental centers and fields of IPTA, Justo López Portillo.

For his part, the Minister of Agriculture and Livestock, Jorge Gattini, said that they expect a good yield from the harvest, since the weather helped with the rain in the area.

“A very encouraging activity is that it is a sesame variety that has a short cycle. If it is planted at the right time, it escapes diseases and therefore, this means greater production per hectare. It can be said that production can reach 35 thousand tons at the national level,” he added.

Finally, the producers asked not to be abandoned during the growing and harvesting season, and they hope for a favourable response from the Government and the Ministry of Agriculture to continue improving their production.