Last fall, the Alabama Department of Agriculture & Industries (ADAI) accepted hemp applications from eligible growers, processors/handlers and universities in preparation for the second year of the program. Alabama Commissioner of Agriculture, Rick Pate, told Southeast AgNet’s Randall Weiseman that last year’s roll-out of the hemp program was real successful and the number of applications for this year have quadrupled.
In 2016, the Alabama Legislature passed the Alabama Industrial Hemp Research Program Act, Section 2-8-380 Code of Alabama 1975, tasking ADAI with the development of a licensing and inspection program for the production of industrial hemp. The program launched in the beginning of 2019, after The Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018 (i.e. Farm Bill) declassified hemp as a schedule 1 drug and deemed hemp as an agriculture commodity. This legislation defines hemp as all parts of the plant containing less than 0.3% THC, including derivatives, extracts, and cannabinoids.
For more information please visit: www.agi.alabama.gov.