This week, the Alabama Department of Agriculture and Industries (ADAI) started accepting applications from hemp growers, processors/handlers and universities for a 2022 industrial hemp license.
Applications will only be accepted online through the Kelly Registration System at agi.alabama.gov/hempapp. The deadline to apply for a 2022 hemp license is November 29, 2021.
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 then 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.
Alabama Commissioner of Agriculture and Industries Rick Pate said, “This is the department’s fourth 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.”