Using ancient breeding techniques and cutting-edge genetic markers, Dr. Zvi Peleg is improving the crop yield of this exasperating plant, and its nutritional value as well.
By Ruth Schuster for Haaretz
Sesame seeds are enormously popular but they have been a frustrating crop for farmers for thousands of years: the plant is hardy enough but its yields are low. Now a scientist at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem has developed methods to improve sesame crop yields while improving the seeds' nutritional quality too. In recognition of his work, Dr. Zvi Peleg has been awarded the Kaye Innovation Award for 2015.
Peleg's basic technique is as ancient as agriculture itself: selective breeding. You pick promising plants and cultivate and breed them while junking the inferior ones. But choosing which sesame plants to breed and which to throw out is based on cutting-edge genetic marker technology, Peleg explains to Haaretz.
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