Beginning today, eligible hemp growers and processors can apply for a state license through a new online application system, the Alabama Department of Agriculture and Industries announced Tuesday.
The online applications are available at agi.alabama.gov/hempapp. The final day to apply for a hemp license is Nov. 30, 2020 by 5 p.m.
“As the hemp industry continues to grow in Alabama, critical research data is being collected and evaluated,” said Commissioner of Agriculture and Industries Rick Pate in a statement. “This is the department’s third year to administer the hemp program. It has always been our goal to manage the program in a fair and timely manner to benefit Alabama farmers and hemp producers and develop industrial hemp as an alternative crop.”
The Alabama Legislature in 2016, passed the Alabama Industrial Hemp Research Program Act, and the licensing and inspection program for hemp production was launched in 2019.
The Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018 declassified hemp as a schedule I drug and defines hemp as all parts of the plant containing less than 0.3 percent THC, including derivatives, extracts, and cannabinoids.
