Int.J.Curr.Microbiol.App.Sci (2020) 9(5): 2312-2319 2312 Original Research Article https://doi.org/10.20546/ijcmas.2020.905.264 Effect of Spacing and Topping on Yield of Summer Sesame (Sesamum indicum L.) Sanjay N. Shah, Hiren K. Patel* and Amit P. Patel Department of Agronomy, B.A. College of Agriculture, Anand Agricultural University, Anand-388110, India *Corresponding author ABSTRACT Introduction Sesame (Sesamum indicum L.) is one of the oldest spices and oilseed crops in the world and it was domesticated well over 3000 years ago. An India rank first in area (29%), production (26%) and export (40%) of sesame in the world. Sesame seed provides excellent food, nutrition, health care, edible oil and biomedicine. The production of oilseed crops in our country including sesame is not enough to meet the domestic demand of the large population. In general, average productivity of sesame continues to be lower (144 to 234 kg ha -1 ) than expected from agricultural technology for the last 20 years, mainly due to its cultivation during rainy season on marginal International Journal of Current Microbiology and Applied Sciences ISSN: 2319-7706 Volume 9 Number 5 (2020) Journal homepage: http://www.ijcmas.com The present investigation was conducted to study the effect of spacing and topping. The field experiment was carried out at College Agronomy farm, B.A. College of Agriculture, Anand Agricultural University, Anand during summer season of year 2017 and 2018. The soil of the experimental area was loamy sand in texture having in low available nitrogen, high in available phosphorus and medium in potash with soil 8.12 pH. The experiment consist of three spacing treatments (S 1 :30 cm between rows, S 2 :45 cm between rows, S 3 :60 cm between rows) and four topping treatments (T 1 : No topping, T 2 : Topping at 25 DAS, T 3 : Topping at 35 DAS and T 4 : Topping at 45 DAS) was tested in split plot design with four replication. The results revealed that plant population and periodical plant height were significantly higher when crop was sown with 30 cm spacing between two rows (S 1 ).Effect of spacing was found non-significant in case of number of branches and stalk yield. Significantly higher seed yield (1134 kg/ha) and the highest number of capsules/plant was found when sesame was sowning at 45 cm between two row. In case of topping treatment, topping done at 35 DAS (T 3 ) recoded significantly higher plant height, number of branches/plant, no. of capsule/plant, test weight and stalk yield. Keywords Topping, spacing, Sesame and yield Accepted: 18 April 2020 Available Online: 10 May 2020 Article Info