The Kentucky Department of Agriculture is asking farmers to apply to grow industrial hemp in 2015.

In a media statement, Agriculture Commissioner James Comer said, “The First round of pilot projects with the universities and individual farmers in 2014 yielded a tremendous amount of data about production methods, seed varieties, harvesting and processing techniques and uses for the harvested hemp.”

After growing hemp for the first time in decades this past year, research from the grow plots at universities and private land should be available near the end of January.

Applicants must apply by January 1, must have a physical address for production and storage, and must not have been convicted of a felony drug charge within the last 10 years.

The application can be downloaded at www.kyagr.com/hemp and submitted to [email protected]. They can also be printed and mailed to Kentucky Department of Agriculture, Industrial Hemp Program, 111 Corporate Drive, Frankfort, Ky. 40601.

Those applicants who are successful will be informed in late January.