Hemp Application Deadline Nearing in Alabama

Dan Alabama, Hemp, Specialty Crops

deadline
Field of Hemp

The Alabama Department of Agriculture and Industries (ADAI) wants to remind eligible hemp growers and processors/handlers the deadline to apply for a hemp license for the 2021 crop is November 30, 2020 by 5:00 pm (CST). ADAI will accept hemp applications using their new online application system: agi.alabama.gov/hempapp.

In 2016, the Alabama Legislature passed the Alabama Industrial Hemp Research Program Act, Section 2-8-380 Code of Alabama 1975, which tasked ADAI with the development of a licensing and inspection program for the production of industrial hemp. The program launched in 2019, after The Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018 (i.e. Farm Bill) declassified hemp as a schedule I 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.

In a statement, Commissioner of Agriculture and Industries Rick Pate said “This is the department’s third year to administer the hemp program. It has always been our goal to manage the program in a fair and timely manner to benefit Alabama farmers and hemp producers and develop industrial hemp as an alternative crop.”