USDA Wants To Survey 18,000 Hemp Businesses About How They Grow And Sell The Crop

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is planning to distribute a national survey to gain insights from thousands of hemp businesses that could inform its approach to regulating the industry. In partnership with the the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture and the University of Kentucky, the federal agency intends to “conduct a survey to collect information from U.S. hemp producers on current production costs, production practices, and marketing practices,” according to a notice set to be published in the Federal Register on Friday. “The survey will also be administered to Tribes that have approved hemp production programs, in order to get input from tribal hemp production,” the department said. But before it can send questionnaires out, the department has to formally request approval to circulate the surveys from the White House Office of Management and Budget, and so it’s opening a 60-day comment period where stakeholders can submit feedback on the necessity of its proposal and areas where the scope of the survey can be improved, among other topics. If authorized, USDA said it expects about 18,000 hemp producers to participate in the survey, which will consist of four main components and which it expects to take respondents a half-hour to complete. First, it wants data on production location, licensed acreage, planted acreage and harvested acreage by end-use. “Collecting this information is necessary to develop an understanding of the industry across the country,” USDA wrote. Then there will be a section on “production costs and practices” that touches…

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Source : MJ moment
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