SESAME-NC: North Central Nigeria Sesame Export & Value Chain Dataset

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Dataset Summary

SESAME-NC is the first open-source, LGA-level dataset mapping the sesame seed (beniseed) value chain across North Central Nigeria — from smallholder farm-gate prices to export transaction benchmarks.

Built for the Uncharted Data Challenge by Adaption Labs, this dataset fills a critical and documented gap: the six primary sesame-producing states of North Central Nigeria — Benue, Nasarawa, Kogi, Kwara, Niger, and Plateau — have zero coverage in both the WFP Food Price Database and the FEWS NET Nigeria Weekly Price Data, despite being among Africa's most productive sesame corridors.

Global AI models cannot reason about Nigerian agricultural supply chains, price volatility, or food security in this region because the data simply does not exist in any open-source form. This dataset is the beginning of closing that gap.

Powered by Adaptive Data by Adaption Labs

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The Data Gap This Dataset Proves & Fills

State	In WFP Database?	In FEWS NET?	Sesame Data Exists?
Benue	❌ Not covered	❌ Not covered	❌ None
Nasarawa	❌ Not covered	❌ Not covered	❌ None
Kogi	❌ Not covered	❌ Not covered	❌ None
Kwara	❌ Not covered	❌ Not covered	❌ None
Niger	❌ Not covered	❌ Not covered	❌ None
Plateau	❌ Not covered	❌ Not covered	❌ None

The WFP Nigeria Food Price Database contains 58,942 rows spanning 2002–2026. The FEWS NET Nigeria dataset contains 305,289 rows spanning 2003–2024. Neither dataset contains a single record for any North Central state, and neither dataset tracks sesame at all.

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Dataset Details

Field	Value
Version	2.0
Date Created	April 2026
Total Rows	1,629
Total Columns	28
States Covered	Benue, Nasarawa, Kogi, Kwara, Niger, Plateau + Lagos (export)
LGAs Covered	30 LGAs across 6 North Central states
Crop	Sesame Seed (Sesamum indicum) — locally called Beniseed
Grades	White (Food/Export Grade), Brown (Oil Grade)
Year Range	2021 – 2026
Seasons Covered	Lean, Planting, Harvest, Post-harvest, Off-season
Quality Grade	A (9.1/10) — improved by Adaptive Data
Quality Improvement	Grade E to Grade A (+325% overall journey)
License	CC BY 4.0
Task Categories	Price Prediction, Food Security Analysis, Supply Chain Optimization

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Quality Improvement Results

This dataset was processed through Adaptive Data by Adaption Labs as part of the Uncharted Data Challenge 2026.

Metric	Before	After
Quality Grade	E	A
Quality Score	2.0 / 10	9.1 / 10
Message Quality	2.62	7.5 (+186%)
Completion Quality	1.75	9.5 (+442%)
Overall Improvement	—	+325%

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Column Descriptions

Column	Type	Description
record_date	date	Date of price observation (YYYY-MM-DD)
year	int	Year of observation
month	int	Month number (1–12)
season	string	Lean / Planting / Harvest / Post-harvest / Off-season
country	string	Nigeria
state	string	Nigerian state (e.g. Benue, Nasarawa)
lga	string	Local Government Area (e.g. Doma, Katsina-Ala)
market_name	string	Name of local market hub
crop	string	Sesame Seed (Beniseed)
grade	string	White (export/food) or Brown (oil grade)
grade_use	string	Intended use of grade
processing_status	string	Raw / Cleaned / Hulled
farmgate_price_ngn_kg	float	Price farmer receives (NGN per kg)
market_price_ngn_kg	float	Price at aggregation hub (NGN per kg)
export_price_usd_kg	float	Export transaction price (USD per kg)
usd_ngn_official	int	CBN official USD/NGN exchange rate
usd_ngn_parallel	int	Parallel market USD/NGN rate
fuel_petrol_ngn_litre	float	Petrol price at time of record (NGN per litre)
transport_cost_ngn_per_50kg_bag	float	Cost to move 1 bag (50kg) from LGA to Lagos port
distance_to_lagos_km	int	Road distance from LGA to Lagos port
logistics_risk_score	int	1–10 score (fuel cost + distance + conflict)
conflict_disruption	string	Yes/No — conflict-affected LGA flag
ai_prompt	string	AI-ready question generated per row
ai_completion	string	AI-ready detailed answer generated per row
data_source	string	Source of price data
notes	string	Contextual methodology notes

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Methodology

Price Estimation Approach

1. Oilseed Proxy (WFP Groundnut Prices) Groundnut is the closest comparable oilseed crop tracked in the WFP Nigeria Food Price Database. Sesame White grade is estimated at approximately 1.35x the groundnut retail price. Brown grade at 1.0x.

2. Season Multiplier

Season	Months	Price Multiplier
Lean	Jan–Mar	1.35x
Planting	Apr–Aug	0.90x
Harvest	Sep	0.85x
Post-harvest	Oct–Nov	1.00x
Off-season	Dec	1.15x

3. Export Price Anchor (Tridge Transactions) Actual export transaction prices from Tridge (Feb 2026):

• Raw sesame to India: $1.17/kg
• Hulled sesame to USA: $2.04–$2.09/kg

4. Logistics Cost Formula

litres_needed = distance_km / 4.0
fuel_cost = litres_needed x fuel_ngn_per_litre
cost_per_bag = (fuel_cost / 400) x 1.20

5. AI Training Enrichment Each row was enriched with ai_prompt and ai_completion columns, then processed through Adaptive Data by Adaption Labs, achieving Grade A quality score of 9.1/10.

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Data Sources

Source	Used For
WFP Nigeria Food Price Database (HDX)	Fuel prices, groundnut oilseed proxy
FEWS NET Nigeria Weekly Price Data	Market context, conflict flags
Tridge Nigeria Sesame Market Overview	Export transaction prices 2021–2026
AFEX Nigeria Commodity Exchange	Sesame production context
Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN)	Official USD/NGN exchange rates
Justice Analyst Field Knowledge	LGA-level enrichment, logistics mapping

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Limitations

1. Farm-gate and market prices are estimated using proxy methodology, not direct field surveys.
2. Parallel market USD/NGN rates are approximations consistent with documented market ranges.
3. No sesame-specific yield, hectarage, or input cost data is included.
4. Conflict flags are binary Yes/No rather than a continuous severity index.
5. Tridge export rows are recorded at Lagos Port level only.

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Use Cases

• Train models to predict sesame farm-gate prices from fuel prices, season, and exchange rate inputs
• Identify which LGAs face the highest logistics burden relative to farm income
• Help sesame exporters find lowest-cost corridors from North Central to Lagos
• Support smallholder credit scoring by linking price volatility to seasonal cash flow
• Provide factual grounding for AI assistants answering questions about Nigerian agriculture

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Author

Lucky Justice Nelson Business Analyst & Data Analyst | Nigeria

• LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/justice-analyst
• GitHub: github.com/JusticeAnalyst
• B.Agric, Agricultural Economics — University of Abuja

"African business and agricultural data is massively underrepresented in AI training datasets. The models do not know our pricing structures, our supply chains, our customer behaviours, or our economic realities. This dataset is one step toward changing that."

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Citation

@dataset{nelson2026sesamenc,
  author    = {Nelson, Lucky Justice},
  title     = {SESAME-NC: North Central Nigeria Sesame Export and Value Chain Dataset},
  year      = {2026},
  month     = {April},
  version   = {2.0},
  publisher = {Hugging Face},
  note      = {Powered by Adaptive Data by Adaption Labs. Uncharted Data Challenge 2026.},
  url       = {https://huggingface.co/datasets/JusticeAnalyst0909/sesame-nc}
}

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Acknowledgements

Built with support from Adaptive Data by Adaption Labs as part of the Uncharted Data Challenge 2026.

Data powered by WFP / HDX, FEWS NET, Tridge, and the Central Bank of Nigeria.

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License: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)