Research on the potential to grow industrial hemp in Western Australia is set to expand with a new collaborative project.
The Industrial Hemp Variety Trial, involving several States, is being led by the Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development (DPIRD) with co-investment from AgriFutures Australia.
Interest is growing in the use of industrial hemp seed, which is high in protein and omegas 3 and 6, for use as whole seed or as an addition to fortify bread, cereals, milk and dairy products.
The new three-year research project will evaluate a number of industrial hemp varieties across multiple sowing dates at the department’s Manjimup Research Facility and its Frank Wise Institute of Tropical Agriculture at Kununurra.
The varieties, sourced from Australia, Canada and France, have been planted at Manjimup over the past few weeks, while the Kununurra plantings will be sown in March, April and May 2022.
The results will be compared with similar trials in South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria and the Northern Territory, as part of the wider variety trial project.
AgriFutures Australia General Manager Michael Beer said the project team was excited the first year of industrial hemp variety trials had commenced, as part of the Emerging Industries Program.
“Industrial hemp is a high-potential emerging industry,” he said. “The trials will provide hemp growers with independent information about the performance of hemp seed varieties suited to specific geographic locations within Australia.”
In WA, the joint AgriFutures Australia project will build on two years of DPIRD funded research, which involved time of sowing trials at Manjimup, Kununurra and a private property at Busselton, led by department research scientist Shahajahan Miyan.
The DPIRD trials evaluated the performance of 12 industrial hemp cultivars sourced from Australia, France and Canada, eight of which will be included in the trials.
Mr Miyan said recent harvest results from the Manjimup site demonstrated that two varieties from France and one from Ecofibre in Queensland performed well, when sown in early December.
“The Manjimup trial compared crop performance from sowing times of 21 October, 1 December, 6 January and 3 March,” he said.
“The trial results indicated that Fedora17, ECO-110 and USO-31 have potential to achieve better grain yield compared with the other cultivars by sowing at an ideal time at a target plant density of 100 plants per square metre.
“The cultivar ECO-019 also performed consistently across sowing dates.”
The results also suggested that the appropriate sowing rate was crucial to achieving good crop establishment.
Mr Miyan said research was still required to examine the most appropriate plant density and spacing to achieve the best establishment so careful consideration should be given when calculating the best seeding rate before sowing.
“There was no significant difference in mean grain yields across varieties when using 100 and 200 plants per square metre, however, higher plant populations may improve overall crop performance under various biotic and abiotic stresses,” he said.
“The higher plant density may also assist the crop to compete with weeds, reducing the need for herbicide use.”
DPIRD continues to work closely with the WA Hemp Growers’ Cooperative (HempGrow), the Industrial Hemp Western Australia Association (iHemp) and other stakeholders to provide guidance and technical support to optimise local production.
[1]Media contacts:
Megan Broad/Katrina Bowers, media liaison
+61 (0)8 9368 3937