National policy: Pakistan to award 100 licenses to grow Hemp

Islamabad: The Federal Ministry of Science and Technology this week drafted the National Hemp Policy and sent it to the federal cabinet for approval.

Under the policy the federal government would award licenses to 100 companies to grow Hemp so that the country could join the billion-rupee international Hemp market, Federal Science and Technology Minister Shibli Faraz told journalists.

Faraz said the government was receiving “countless” applications seeking permission for Hemp production.

“Hemp production, and its products especially on the medicine side and agricultural side, have an international market that will grow to Rs100 billion by 2026. We want to join it,” Faraz said.

The science and technology ministry wants to use Hemp to boost the national economy. Faraz said although his ministry had been receiving several applications every day, it would allow only 100 companies to grow Hemp initially. “We want to ensure that there is no misuse of this product. At the same time we want to facilitate the investors,” he said.

Under the National Policy, the government plans to set up a Hemp regulatory authority that will begin its one-window operations after the approval.

The Hemp fields will be required to have boundary walls and surveillance cameras. Industrial Hemp has several uses including as along with bamboo, hemp is among the fastest growing plants on Earth.

Earlier this year, scientists at the University of Agriculture Faisalabad managed to extract hemp thread from indigenous cannabis and worked on making sustainable jeans from the hemp fabric.

One of the products extracted from Hemp is CBD Oil. However, there are several misconception about the product among Desis.