| We were met by Mr van der Merwe, the
resident ARC researcher, who organised the visit and
shared his knowledge. He has been involved in the agricultural
research trials for several years, and manages all the
trials in the Cape Province.
Present at the visit were representatives of Nkozi
Homes, Hemporium, One World Sustainable Investment,
South Africa- The Good News, Groenfontein Farm, Sir
Lowry’s Pass Village and The Foundation for the
Development of Leadership in Young People.
 Once
inside the fenced-off trial plot, Mr van der Merwe identified
the different strains he was testing for us, detailing
strains from France, Hungary, Serbia and some new strains
from Russia. The new Russian strains seemed to be much
shorter with good fibre but very few males for seed
production. The two strains that seemed to be the best
all round with good height for fibre and plenty of males
to facilitate seed production were Kompolti and the
Serbian strain, Novasadska. What was of concern was
that after quite a few years of trials, the trials were
still at a fairly elementary stage, and the most suitable
strains for South African climes had yet to be identified.
Mr van der Merwe also highlighted the challenge he
had keeping the birds from eating all the seeds, which
they seem to savour. This is apparently only a problem
in the small trials, as in larger agricultural plots
the birds will only affect the outside of the field.
He explained to us that due to problems obtaining permits
and seed, the current crop was only planted on 21 December
last year, so when we visited they had been growing
for just over two months. This was quite impressive,
as some of the strains were already showing plants well
over two metres high and flowers full of healthy oily
seeds.
Once we were done in the trial plot and all questions
had been answered, Mr van der Merwe showed us some of
the cultivated and retted stalks from previous year’s
crops. The fibre came off the retted stalks easily and
seemed to be of a high quality. He will be providing
us with the data of the tests done on the fibre and
seeds.
All in all it was a very informative and encouraging
visit, although the consensus was that the next level
of trials are way overdue, and that industrial trials
on a larger scale should begin as soon as possible.
South Africa has the potential to be a world leader
in the hemp industry but it was agreed that we are presently
getting left behind by Northern Hemisphere countries
that have opened up their industrial hemp markets and
industries.
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