The Colorado Department of Agriculture (CDA) has selected MPG Consulting to develop a strategic plan for the state Hemp Center of Excellence. Click here to read the full press release.

HOP is now capable of accepting your planting and harvest reports! Please submit your reports to your account through HOP at www.colorado.gov/hemp. Emailing and mailing your planting and harvest reports to the hemp program will delay the processing of your reports.

The hemp program is required to track how many acres and square feet of hemp are planted and harvested, and disposed due to non-compliant THC concentration. As such, you are required to report to the hemp program how much area of each variety you planted and each variety must have a corresponding harvest report. Planting reports are due within 10 days after planting, and harvest reports are due at least 30 days prior to harvest.

Additionally, in HOP, you need to report if you did not plant; you also need to report if your crop failed. If volunteer hemp plants emerge and you are going to cultivate, maintain, and take care of those volunteer hemp plants, that is planting, and you need to submit in HOP a planting report for those volunteer hemp plants, within 10 days of them emerging, and submit a harvest report at least 30 days prior to harvest.

Finally, once the USDA releases its final rule and Colorado has a USDA-approved State Plan, the hemp program will be sampling 100% of registrations that have submitted planting and harvest reports. Therefore, you need to submit your planting and harvest reports into your account in HOP. Until then, if you are selected for inspection, you should have a copy of your planting and harvest reports for the inspector to view, even if you entered that information into HOP.

If you do not submit a planting and harvest report, you may be selected for inspection. Additionally, if you reported that you “did not plant,” or that you reported crop failure, you may be subject to an inspection.

In the USDA’s Interim Final Rule (IFR): “[A]ny person convicted of a felony related to a controlled substance under State or Federal law before, on, or after the enactment of the 2018 Farm Bill” is prohibited from participating in the production of “hemp for 10 years following the date of conviction. An exception applies to a person who was lawfully growing hemp under the 2014 Farm Bill Before December 20, 2018, and whose conviction also occurred before that date.” (p. 58526 of IFR)

The hemp program will review the criminal history of each applicant. For businesses, the hemp program will review the criminal history of key participants. As defined in the USDA’s IFR, a key participant is: “a sole proprietor, a partner in partnership, or a person with executive managerial control in a corporation.” Additionally, “[a]ny person who falsifies any information submitted to this program will be ineligible to participate.”

Click here to read the IFR.

Visit the hemp webpage at www.colorado.gov/hemp and click on Pesticide Use in Cannabis Production. You can sign up to receive the pesticide list every time it is updated. Please note that just because the pesticide is on the list, does not mean it is allowed for use on hemp. You can only use a pesticide on hemp if “yes” is under the hemp column.

SEEDS

Beginning January 1, 2021, phytosanitary certificates are no longer needed for the export of hemp seeds from Colorado to other states. Phytosanitary certificates are still required for:

·      Shipments of live hemp plant material to other states, and

·      All hemp seed shipments to other countries.

Click here for more information on seed exports.

PLANTS

All propagative plant material, including hemp, that is moving between states must be inspected and certified for pest and disease freedom. All hemp plants sold and distributed to domestic markets must be:

·      Clean. Plants must be free of diseases and insects. Plants may also need to be tested to prove freedom from certain diseases depending on requirements of the receiving country or state.

·      Inspected. CDA offers plant inspection services as required for exports and general Nursery Regulatory program requirements.

Click here for the information on exporting live hemp plants and phytosanitary certificates.

Hemp registrations expire after one year; they do not renew. Therefore, you need to know when your registration expires so you can submit your application through the Hemp Online Portal (HOP) prior to the expiration date. Allow at least 30 days for processing.

DO NOT email your application. Instead, create an account in HOP and submit your application there.

If you mail your application, allow an additional 7-10 days prior to your expiration date because program staff is working remotely and not going into the office.