HEMP FARMERS FACE UPHILL BATTLE

A hemp growing project which offers hope to small farmers in the
poverty stricken Eastern Cape could be derailed because hemp is still
an illegal substance.

Department of Health rules which lump hemp together with dagga could
scupper plans for the effective mass production and marketing of the
fibrous plant.

"The status of the hemp plant is still [in South Africa] exactly the
same as dagga, but the narcotic ingredient of the hemp plant is much
less than the dagga plant," said Andreas Pluddemann, a scientist at
the Medical Research Council.

Pluddemann said it was time for a review of legislation, especially
as special permits were being granted in the Eastern Cape.

"There is no real reason not to revisit the legislation other than it
might be technically difficult to administer," he said.

Amendments to the 1965 Medicine and Related Substances Act, which
would insert a section dealing with industrial hemp regulations, also
have to be approved by the Medicines Control Council (MCC).

The MCC currently authorises two special permits, one for importing
seeds and the other for growing hemp, for the Eastern Cape pilot project.

The provincial agriculture department said hemp cultivation in South
Africa started in 1999 through collaboration between the Agricultural
Research Council, the Centre for Scientific and Industrial Research,
the Development Bank of Southern Africa, government and the private
sector.

"Hemp is foreign to us and we were using hemp cultivars from Hungary,
Yugoslavia, France, Hungary and Poland," said Monde Sotana, a
provincial agriculture official.

Sotana said the current phase began after initial trials showed hemp
could be grown in local conditions.

The latest phase includes large-scale hemp cultivation by pioneer
farmers, training and development skills, co-operative agreements with
hemp producing countries, commercialisation and marketing, and a "hemp
seed multiplication scheme".

Sotana said about 180 small-scale farmers are involved, an area of
about 50ha is under cultivation, and farming equipment including
tractors had been bought.

"Hemp breeding has progressed to a level on which we can register a
South African cultivar. A multiplication scheme on local hemp seed can
be done then, and seed will be affordable to the farmers," said
Sontana, adding that 10 oil pressing machines and ten oil filters had
been bought to help farmers produce hemp oil.

The versatile hemp plant is grown mainly for fibre, and secondly for
oil, and has a variety of other uses, including composite building
materials, bio-fuel and textiles.

DaimlerChrysler was mentioned by Agriculture Minister Thoko Didiza
last year as being interested in using local hemp to manufacture dashboards.

Didiza said there would be no drive for "massive production" until the
pilot project trials were finalised and unless the Department of
Health removed hemp from the cannabis schedule of drugs.

According to self-styled housing innovator Andre du Plessis, who has
been on a one-man crusade for the past four years to get government to
consider building cannabis homes for the poor, an "economic platform"
was created when using these materials.

"When building housing from an agricultural product, an economic
platform is created in the rural areas, which in turn could impact on
rural-to-urban migration," he said, adding that government should
consider the agricultural benefits to be gained if the law on cannabis
was changed.