The Ministry of Agriculture, the National Agrifood Health and Quality Service (Senasa) and the National Seed Institute (Inase) participated in the first experimental harvests of industrial hemp on Argentine soil after 50 years, it was officially reported today.
The cultivation practices are developed by the national company Industrial Hemp Solutions (IHS), within the possibilities offered by the new regulatory framework for medical cannabis and industrial hemp.
With the authorization of Senasa and Inase, said firm managed to enter the country with cutting-edge hemp genetics from different regions of the world.
The Secretary of Agriculture, Juan José Bahillo, highlighted: “We have the objective of achieving the growth of hemp crops for all its legal uses with the contribution and innovation of our decentralized organizations and Argentine universities.”
For her part, the president of Senasa, Diana Guillén, explained: “We are accompanying and seeing the experiences of hemp harvesting, a process brought to us by the team from the University of Buenos Aires that has been studying the crop with the aim of seeing the different varieties that are being tested and harvested in different eco-regions of the country in order to determine which ones are best adapted to the climate”.
“We are seeing the first trials, how each of the varieties respond, and working on new regulations that allow us to accompany the development of the sector for its different legal uses, and strengthen the entire chain that has great potential for the country,” Guillén added. .
The potential of the Argentine bioeconomy is enormous and, in this context, hemp is positioned as synonymous with development and progress, highlighted Agriculture and Senasa in a joint statement.
“Having good propagation materials is essential to build a robust industry that allows profitability and local development,” they said.
In her turn, the president of Inase, Silvana Babbitt, expressed: “The National State identified hemp as a strategic crop and from Insase we began to work in that sense, accompanying from our role, providing control and traceability to the productive system, and rigor and experience in registering varieties”.
He also explained that “hemp is an efficient soil regenerator; its uses range from fiber for the textile industry to construction materials, replacement of plastic polymers with natural polymers and much more.”
Source: Ambito
