Hemp pilot projects will continue in 2015

By Braden Lammers
Source: bizjournals.com


The Kentucky Department of Agriculture hopes to expand its industrial hemp pilot projects in 2015.

Kentucky is looking for processors and developers to come up with new uses for industrial hemp as the state aims to expand growth of the crop in its second round of hemp pilot projects.

The Kentucky Department of Agriculture is accepting applications for industrial hemp projects that would begin next year.

This year, the department planted its first crop of hemp seeds in Kentucky in small plots through pilot projects at six univerisites in the state.

"The first round of pilot projects with the universities and individual farmers in 2014 yielded a tremendous amount of data about production methods, seed varieties, harvesting and processing techniques, and uses for the harvested hemp," Kentucky agriculture commissioner James Comersaid in a news release. "We're looking to conduct a wide scope of pilot projects in 2015."

Comer has consistently said he wants the state to be at the forefront of production of industrial hemp.

In an interview, he said the state is "well-positioned to help create a pretty significant industry here in the future."

Kentucky had a rocky start to the hemp pilot projects launched earlier this year when the hemp seeds it planned to use for its pilot projects were seized by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration after clearing customs in Chicago. The seeds had been imported from Italy.

Eventually, a deal was reached to release the seeds and establish a formal process to import hemp seeds to Kentucky.

That process is still in place, and there has been no change at the federal level regarding industrial hemp, said Adam Watson, the Kentucky Department of Agriculture's industrial hemp program coordinator. He said state programs operate under the federal farm bill authorization, which allows departments of agriculture to run pilot programs within a state.

Comer previously told Business First that he would like to see industrial hemp deregulated enough that, by the spring of 2015, private farmers in Kentucky who want to grow the product would not have to get a license from the state's agriculture department to do so.

He said Tuesday that he still hopes to make that push during Kentucky's 2015 legislative session.

Comer said he hopes several thousand acres of industrial hemp will be planted in 2015 through the pilot project. But if production is to increase, Comer said, more processors have to locate in the state.

"Farmers aren't going to grow a crop unless they have a market to sell it," he said.

A goal of the project is to seek development of hemp into alternative products. Watson said that to encourage this development the state is urging processors of industrial hemp to apply for the pilot program.

Comer said two processors already have located in the state and that four others have expressed interest opening an operation in the state. He declined to identify any of the processors.

Kentucky farmers and processors interested in participating in the 2015 round of industrial hemp pilot projects must apply by Jan. 1, the Kentucky Department of Agriculture said in the release.

Applicants must provide a physical address of the location for the production fields to be used to grow, process or store industrial hemp and global positioning coordinates, if possible. Applicants who are selected will undergo background checks and site visits. A person with a felony drug conviction within 10 years of submitting an application is not eligible to participate in any pilot project.

The application is available for download on the agriculture department's website and are due by Dec. 31. Successful applicants will be notified in late January, according to the release.