 | NZ Hemp: Hemp Trials in Southland |
 Some details of the current NZ Hemp trials emerged today in the Otago Daily Times when some of the scientists and farmers involved in the trials spoke to the paper.
Some locations have proven unsuccessful due to lack of water or too much wind, but overall the trials have gone well and the main problem is the uncertainty created by the legal status - no-one knows what is going to happen when the trial period ends.
Interest in hemp trial on Taieri Plain Invermay land
By Tom McKinlay, Otago Daily Times, 27 August 2003
Tall stands of cannabis-like hemp plants could ripple on the Taieri Plain this summer as part of continuing investigations into growing the cash crop in the lower South Island.
Should the trials prove successful, one of the South Island's first commercial crops could be grown in the Catlins.
South Canterbury scientist Steve Cutler said yesterday Crop and Food Research scientists had expressed interest in participating in a trial on Invermay Agricultural Centre land near Mosgiel.
A trial site near Teschemakers, south of Oamaru, on which hemp had previously been grown would probably not be used again, as it had not produced well.
"There were problems with a lack of water," Mr Tyler said.
"It showed that it is not the God-given brilliant plant that can survive anything that some people make it out to be. Just like any other crop, it needs the right conditions and a bit of care."
Trial plots in Canterbury had done better, but a plot near Invercargill was battered by the wind, reducing the all-important seed harvest.
The Government-approved two-year trial period for hemp was extended for a year after last summer's harvest. During the trial period, growing of the crop is covered by the Misuse of Drugs Act and is being closely monitored.
Mr Cutler is performing his trials as part of a Royal Society of New Zealand Teaching Fellowship, based at Lincoln University.
The trials involve setting up plots of different cultivars in different latitudes.
Industrial hemp, which is a low-THC cannabis, can be used to produce seed oils high in nutritionally important omega 3 and omega 6 essential fatty acids.
New Zealand Hemp Industry Association chairman Mac McIntosh said he intended starting commercial production at Tawanui, in the Catlins, as a seed producer as soon as the trial period ended. He hoped that would occur next year.
Telford Rural Polytechnic had also expressed some interest in becoming involved in the trials but might have left its run a bit late, Mr McIntosh said.
The industry was working on a range of possible end uses - including foodstuffs and products made from the hemp fibre - but that was hampered by the lack of certainty created by the trial period, he said.
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