Sesame is a source of oil, food, feed and a cash crop. There is a great potential, in Ethiopia, to exploit sesame production, however mean seed yield is very low due to the lack of any high yielding varieties. The objectives of this research were to evaluate the performance of eleven sesame genotypes including a control (“Tate”) were tested over three seasons (2013/14, 2014/2015and 2015/16) at three sesame growing locations (Werer, Bonta(Arrage) and Miesso) using randomized complete block design with three replications. The study showed that Ado (Acc-051-02-sel-1-(2)) was outshone the other genotypes and it was approved for release by the Ethiopian National Variety Release Committee in March 2017. Ado’s main advantages over the other tested lines were its higher grain yield together with white seed color. It was anticipated that because of its seed color, Ado will have an external market preference and high prices, and thereby contributing to a future sesame export market.

Keywords: Variety, Sesame, Seed, Yield