Hemp Research Consortium Aims to Tackle Industry’s Largest Challenges
Cannabtimes

<![CDATA[As an industry still in its early stages, hemp is a crop that still needs development in nearly all parts of its supply chain to reach maturity.A new research initiative spanning federal governmental agencies, universities, and private companies is attempting to help facilitate connections to bolster that development.The Hemp Research Consortium is a new initiative coordinated by the Foundation for Food & Agriculture Research (FFAR), a federal organization founded by the 2014 Farm Bill to connect funders, researchers, and farmers to support agricultural projects.Researchers from Cornell University, North Carolina State University, and the University of Kentucky are leading the charge on research projects that will help address some of the industry’s most pressing issues, including genetic development, agricultural production systems, product development, and more. As part of its requirement to match every public dollar spent on research with a dollar of private funding, the FFAR has secured $5 million for the research project, half of which was funded through private investments, while the FFAR matched the other half using public funds. Leaders of the research project hope that investment is just the beginning.“We see hemp as having the potential to really help diversify profitable crops for growers,” says Dr. Jeffrey Rosichan, Ph.D., the director of the Crops of the Future Collaborative at FFAR. “The growers need both a source of seed and material to grow, but they also need a place to sell their products, so that’s…what we’re trying to do with this consortium.”A Model Built on CollaborationWhile cross-collaboration among the universities had already been taking place when Rosichan reached out regarding establishing the consortium, recruiting companies to help fund the initiative took place over two years.Companies that have committed so far–including Agilent Technologies, the IR-4 program, IND HEMP, International Hemp, Oregon CBD, The Scotts Company, and U.S. Sugar–will have…

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