Sesame is an ancient oilseed crop, with the long history of cultivation. With 0.78 million tonnes of production, India ranks third in sesame production and second in area after Sudan in the world from 1.56 million hectares area and productivity of 502 kg/ha. The productivity of sesame in the country has constantly increased during the XII plan. India is a major exporter of sesame and earns Rs 3761 crores foreign exchange. In the recent past, the international demand for sesame has witnessed substantial growth. Sesame is the source of quality edible oil, food, biomedicine and health care.  The superior nutritional, medicinal, cosmetic and cooking qualities of oil made it the queen of oilseeds. It is grown in all seasons of the year and being a short duration crop, fits well into different cropping systems. The research on sesame started systematically in 1967 and niger was added into AICRP fold in 1972. The full-fledged AICRP on Sesame and Niger was started with the creation of the Project Coordination Unit at Jabalpur in 1981. The project was strengthened in terms of new AICRP and Testing Centres for need based research.