MANHATTAN —  A draft of regulations for the Commercial Industrial Hemp Program in Kansas is now available for public input on the Kansas Department of Agriculture website. The draft was developed by KDA and will be available for public review by the industrial hemp state advisory board and stakeholders.  

The draft can be found at agriculture.ks.gov/IndustrialHemp, and comments may be submitted there or emailed to KDA.industrialhemp@ks.gov through Sept. 13. Following this public input stage, all feedback will be considered in revising the regulations prior to beginning the next step in the formal adoption process.  

As part of the formal adoption process, the regulations will be reviewed by several entities, including the Division of Budget, Department of Administration, the Attorney General, and the Joint Committee on Administrative Rules and Regulations. In addition, they will be subject to a public hearing which will be announced in the Kansas Register 60 days prior to the hearing. The state’s Commercial Industrial Hemp Program plan also must be approved by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The USDA is expected to provide the “Final Rule” on the establishment of a domestic hemp production program in late August 2019.