Some of these challenges include severely delayed planting of hemp (and most other crops), labor shortages for some growers, “hot” hemp crops (THC > 0.3%), and harvested hemp left in barns and warehouses while some of the larger hemp processing companies filed for bankruptcy. With all these known difficulties plus COVID-19, you may wonder if we will see any hemp planted in 2020. The state chemist office has approved around 200 licenses and 6,000 acres have been registered. I am confident we will see some hemp planted, but growers are wary of the current climate and some have decided to hold off on planting until 2021.
In these uncertain times, we are trying to adapt and keep everyone up to date on changes in the hemp industry. Since we have had to cancel several in-person events, we have moved them to webinars and are hopeful that we will reach a large audience and provide quality content. Most webinars will be archived and publicly available on purduehemp.org. A list of upcoming webinars can be found at https://purduehemp.org/events/
We have also created a listserv focused on hemp research updates and upcoming events. If you would like to sign up for this listserv please follow the instructions found here https://lists.purdue.edu/mailman/listinfo/hempnews
