INTEREST IN HEMP TRIAL ON TAIERI PLAIN INVERMAY LAND

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.