ABOUT 40 farmers from across New South Wales and Victoria have met at a Pooncarie farm to view a recently planted hemp crop and discuss the future of the hemp industry in the region.
Southern Hemp’s David Brian and farmer Tony Smith, who recently planted two hectares of hemp, spoke to the farmers, and fielded a range of questions around water usage, the types of fertilisers to use and the best times to plant and sow.
The managing director of Mallee Hemp Growers group Anthony Marciano said he was pleased with the turnout, and added that 15 growers had committed to planting crops in September.
“Everybody that left said it was an awesome meeting,” he said. “It was very insightful, people learnt a lot, we had David Brian and he was able to answer a lot of questions being a builder and buyer of hemp.
“We spoke about how we are going to create the hemp cooperative and how we are going to bank the hemp seed so we have enough to spread out between everybody.”
Mr Marciano said once they have several crops in the ground they would be able to diversify how they use the hemp.
“We will grow for dual purposes, growing for both the seeds and fibre, and as we get the markets and contracts for sowing, it we might have some growers growing for seed to supply supermarkets and others for building material.”
“We are trying to do multiple things. We want to make beer out of the seeds and create a Mallee lager for the Mallee Hemp Group and eventually turn that into a cooperative when we have enough people within the next 6-12 months.”
Mr Marciano said the next step is to form a united cooperative of growers.
“If we have a group of people to go to government and say we have a group of 50 growers and we are going to turn this into a cooperative then we can put a proposal in and say this is what we need, what can we get,” he said.
“The NSW government are really behind industrial hemp and pushing it hard and making licences easier to get than in Victoria.”
“The whole key to this thing will be getting it in the ground, working out a few trials to be able to fully commit in September, and learning as we go along.”
