Hemp in rotation could help fight cyst nematode, advocate says

By Nat Williams
Source: agrinews-pubs.com

HARDIN, Ill. — For many, legalization of industrial hemp production is an economic issue. For others it is a political one.

For Jeff Gain, it is agricultural more than anything. Gain, a member of the North American Industrial Hemp Council board, has fought for 20 years to legalize hemp production in the U.S.

There are a number of arguments for hemp. It is a versatile crop used in manufacturing. But benefits to farming are even more critical, Gain believes.

“In the beginning of this country we grew a lot of different crops; not just corn and soybeans or wheat,” he said. “One of them was hemp. We simply have to go back to a situation where we can have additional choices. Genetic breeding is going to be helpful. But the use of chemicals and all the other strategies we’ve employed to try and fight something as simple as soybean cyst nematodes can be done by using different crops in our rotation.”

Research in Canada — where hemp production is legal — shows that the crop could help farmers cut down on inputs. Compost from falling leaves could be a valuable byproduct.

“The research shows that if hemp leaves fall they compost in the ground and work into the soil,” Gain said. “That compost kills 50 percent of the soil-borne cyst nematodes. So just by rotating soybeans with the hemp crop you could eliminate problems with insects and diseases, potentially.”

Hemp requires few inputs and thrives in various climates and soils. Its fibers are used in composites for interior automobile door panels. Other uses include fuel and soap. The seeds even have culinary value.

According to Globe Newswire, the U.S. imported $500 million in hemp products in 2013. Though illegal to grow in the U.S., it is legal to use hemp products here.

“This fiber is stronger than steel, it doesn’t rust and it’s compostable,” Gain said. “When you’re through with your car, you could pile all the stuff together, compost it and turn it back into topsoil. I believe that this crop could compete with soybean acreage in this country.”

Hemp has been grown in Illinois and a number of other states, especially in the 1920s and 1930s. Gain said much of the crop was grown in the Northern Plains, though Kentucky produced most of the seed.

Legalization of the crop would only be the first step. Regulatory and start-up agronomic issues would follow.

“That’s a whole issue of itself: certification of seed and things like that,” Gain said. “The whole industry, at least initially, would have to be tightly controlled and regulations put in place on grading standards.”

Logistics involved in selling and transporting the crop would also have to be established.

“When you harvest hemp, it’s baled up. That has to be processed within a 50- to 100-mile radius to be viable economically because those bales are very heavy and very expensive to move,” Gain said. “There are a lot of marketing issues here that have to be addressed on a national level.”

An attempt at growing hemp on an industrial scale in Colorado last year was not agronomically successful, but Gain said that’s because it wasn’t managed properly. He did note, however, that federal agents did not destroy the crop as they have done in the past when it was grown, mostly on Indian reservations.

“The DEA is not doing that now,” Gain said. “But states really can’t do this on their own. It’s going to have to cross state lines and be processed locally.”