West Kentucky Hemp Conference

Industrial Hemp has been a long standing tradition in Kentucky.  In the 19^th and 20^th century Kentucky was the world leader in hemp production.  Then in the 1970’s the war on drugs outlawed the sale and production of cannabis sativa and made it a schedule 1 substance.  In 2014 a bill was passed that allowed Kentucky to start growing and researching hemp development and production to offset a slowing tobacco industry.  In 2014 there were 20 approved growers and 33 acres planted.  Just to show how the industry has grown, in 2018 that number has jumped to 210 approved growers and 6,700 acres planted.  With the creation of this new industry it was important for growers to receive good research based, nonbiased information.  For this reason, the West Kentucky Hemp Conference was created.

The West Kentucky Hemp Conference was established as a partnership between Kentucky State University and the University of Kentucky Cooperative Extension facilities of Caldwell, Christian, and Trigg counties.  The West Kentucky Hemp Conference was held Friday June 14^th 2019 at the Trigg County recreational complex.  The morning was packed with speakers which came from four states to talk about topics from Economics and production to Contracts and loan approval processes.  After lunch attendees were able to tour a local processing facility and hemp production farm.  At the end of the day 123 attendees were able to say that they gained knowledge in hemp and hemp production.

As agriculture continues to be a changing industry, there will always be new opportunities.  With the signing of the 2018 Farm Bill many new markets were opened for the industrial hemp revolution.  While more growers register each year, it is the responsibility of the universities to see that reliable information is available that will allow producers to make responsible decisions.  The West Kentucky Hemp Conference ended up being a great outlet to provide that information for many new growers.