Barely a year after the 2018 Farm Bill legalized industrial hemp and gave farmers the green light to grow the crop under state and tribal programs, the industrial hemp industry is booming. The insanely versatile crop had been outlawed for decades and this resulted in a lot of ignorance regarding best practices for cultivating hemp.
Apart from its industrial and nutritional uses, hemp also produces a variety of useful cannabinoids, including cannabidiol (CBD) and THC. According to the Farm Bill, hemp has to have less than 0.3% THC for it to be considered legal hemp. THC is the main intoxicating chemical in hemp and marijuana.
Hemp takes a short while to mature, but it requires close attention during the entire process. One mistake, and suddenly your hemp is hot (contains more than the federally allowed THC levels), or it has too little levels of the in-demand CBD. To combat this, farmers have begun turning to AI to help run their indoor farms and collect valuable information.
Data collection is especially important for hemp. There is very little accurate information on hemp out there, and large, publicly-traded cannabis companies have started to integrate AI systems to help collect data and fine-tune everything from irrigation and humidity management, things that would be much harder for a farmer to do on his own.
“Growers and operators that are comfortable with learning and continuous improvement have been champions for machine learning and computer vision platforms,” says Adam Greenberg, CEO of Seattle-based computer vision company IUNU which specializes in building horticultural platforms.
One advantage of AI is that it’s entirely scalable, meaning it won’t just be confined to the top dogs with lots of money to spend. The platforms can be used by the average small farmers, and experts believe there will be more opportunities for small operators to access AI-enabled platforms.
Darryn Keller, CEO of Autogrow, a controlled environment automation company in Auckland, New Zealand, says, “We’re trying to democratize knowledge to make sure that whatever the big guys can do with their deep pockets can be replicated on a platform for the benefit of anybody,”
These systems also make it easier to collect growing data accurately. Most farmers do this manually and try to replicate the methods seasonally, but human error often leads to inconsistencies. Greenberg estimates this results in 10%-25% crop loss each season. AI, on the other hand, collects data accurately, helping to perfect recipes and improve crop consistency.
“It’s a new level of granularity that’s also scalable and profitable. That’s how we’re going to drive efficiency for this industry,” he says.
“At the end of the day, there’s not enough knowledge and not enough people to grow everything, so you’re going to have to use AI combined with robotics and other automation technologies to run everything.”
It is believed that sector players like MCTC Holdings Inc. (OTC: MCTC) are looking forward to the widespread use of AI in hemp cultivation since this will eventually bring down costs and ensure producers earn a decent return for their efforts annually.
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