Sesame is one of the oldest cultivated plants in the world. It was a highly prized crop of Babylon and Assyria at least 4,000 years ago. Today India is the world’s largest producers of sesame followed by Burma, Sudan, Mexico, Nigeria, Venezuela, Turkey, Uganda, China and Ethiopia. Sesame was introduced to the United states in the 1930’s. Domestic production has been limited because of lack of cultivators that can be harvested mechanically. In 1987, the sesame average in this country was less than 2500 acres, about half of which were in Texas. The U.S. Imports about 40,000 tons of seed and 2,200 tons of sesame seed annually.