Asked by: Lord Jones of Penybont (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the opportunities for the promotion of industrial hemp.
Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Growers are the best judge of what planting is suited to their land type and long-term agronomic strategy, but Defra recognises the valuable addition industrial hemp can be to some farms as a break crop.
Defra and the Home Office have listened carefully to experienced growers, and we believe that the changes to the Home Office hemp licensing system, currently in delivery, will be key to unlocking the crop’s huge potential. These reforms will enable an expansion of the growing area, better alignment of licences with the farming calendar and rotation planning, and an increase in the number of varieties growers can access.
Defra has also commissioned several studies looking at hemp cultivation, to better understand how the crop can contribute to achieving environmentally sustainable actions.