The federal government wants to legalize cannabis consumption in Germany. Lower Saxony’s Agriculture Minister Miriam Staudte (Greens) sees this as a new business area for agriculture. With many farmers giving up animal husbandry, cannabis cultivation could become a new mainstay, she said recently. According to the Hessian Farmers’ Association, this is not an alternative for most farms in Hesse. “This does not solve the livelihood worries of farmers who can make their empty stables available for hemp cultivation,” emphasized a spokeswoman.
“Drug and medicinal hemp has so far – and will certainly continue to do so in the future – under strict rules, so to speak, in highly secured buildings,” she explained. Permission will be granted after a tendering process. Permissions are difficult to obtain. “It is still unclear how this will be regulated in the future.” In order to get optimal yields, hemp is cultivated in darkened rooms with artificial lighting. “That’s not necessarily an agricultural core competence.” For the majority of farms, the cultivation of cannabis for recreational purposes is therefore not an option.
On the other hand, the extent of cultivation of industrial hemp with a THC value of less than 0.2 percent has increased significantly in Hesse in recent years – according to data from the State Office for Agriculture Hesse from around 80 hectares in 2017 to around 390 hectares in 2021. “Cultivation of industrial hemp and cultivation medicinal or drug hemp do not have much to do with each other,” explained the spokeswoman for the Hessian Farmers’ Association. “The industrial hemp that has been cultivated up to now is a completely normal field crop that needs only a small amount of input, such as initial weed control and initial fertilization,” she explained.
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Regarding the question of possible opportunities for agriculture through the cultivation of cannabis for recreational purposes, Hesse’s Ministry of Agriculture explained that the issue of legal cultivation had not yet been examined in detail. This first requires a binding definition of uniform federal requirements that can be implemented with legal certainty. “On this basis, location, safety, construction and control issues can then be considered more closely,” explained a spokeswoman.