In April, the Kansas legislature passed Senate Bill 263 to enact the Alternative Crop Research Act and charged the Kansas Department of Agriculture with implementing the Industrial Hemp Research Program. This fall, KDA requests that individuals who are considering participation in the Industrial Hemp Research Program in Kansas in 2019, whether as a grower, distributor or processor, submit a Pre-Application and Pre-Application Research Proposal.

The Pre-Application is voluntary, and it is not an application for a license; anyone who plans to participate in the spring will still need to obtain a license through the official application process after the regulations become effective. Those who submit a Pre-Application with a Pre-Application Research Proposal will have an opportunity for the Industrial Hemp Research Advisory Committee to informally review the research proposal to determine the likelihood of its approval when the regulations are effective. In addition, those who submit the Pre-Application will get direct notification as soon as the full research license application process is available.

The Pre-Application is not the full research license application; there is no fee requirement or fingerprint-based state and national criminal history record check requirement to submit the Pre-Application, although both will be required with the research license application when it becomes available. In the Pre-Application Research Proposal, potential growers, distributors or processors will be asked to explain in detail the research they plan to conduct in their participation in the Industrial Hemp Research Program in Kansas.

The regulations that will guide the Industrial Hemp Research Program are still in the midst of the approval process as outlined on KDA’s industrial hemp webpage. A public hearing will be held soon, which will be one of the last steps prior to the adoption of the regulations.

The deadline for submission of the Pre-Application and Pre-Application Research Proposal is December 1, 2018. The Pre-Application forms and additional instruction — along with much more information about the new Industrial Hemp Research Program in Kansas — can be found at agriculture.ks.gov/industrialhemp.