The 2019 Nebraska State Legislature passed LB 657 this session expanding research opportunities for industrial hemp. Governor Pete Ricketts signed the measure into law last month. State Agriculture Director Steve Wellman says as a result, his department’s been given the authority to select growers and processors for hemp research.

He says seven of those ten projects have received licensing agreements from the Nebraska Agriculture Department.

Wellman says the potential markets for farmers to grow hemp as a cash crop remain to be seen. He is concerned about production getting going too quickly and outpacing demand.

Wellman says the USDA is currently working on the rules for growing industrial hemp as a crop rather than for just research.