Industrial hemp (Cannabis sativa L.) productivity and risk assessment in hemp production
2015
Adamovics, A., Latvia Univ. of Agriculture, Jelgava (Latvia). Faculty of Agriculture | Zeverte-Rivza, S., Latvia Univ. of Agriculture, Jelgava (Latvia). Faculty of Economics and Social Development
The sector of hemp growing and processing is subjected to significant changes through the past decades, historically hemp growing was widespread and in Latvia hemp was broadly used in everyday life – in the local cuisine, for feeding animals and also as a building and textile material. It had lost its popularity but following the global tendencies in agriculture, growing and processing of hemp (Cannabis sativa L.) is slowly regaining its positions mainly due to the versatile possibilities of using hemp. Though the total number of hemp growers is significantly smaller nowadays as it has been historically, the use of hemp is expanding and during recent years several enterprises have introduced new products that includes using hemp in food production, production of ecological construction materials, paper, production of textiles, biodegradable plastics and as mentioned, renewable energy production. Agriculture, including hemp production and processing, is one of the industries subject to risks due to changing weather conditions, diseases and pests and volatile market prices on inputs and products produced. This article aims to reflect the results of the risk evaluation in hemp production and processing, for the evaluation purposes the hemp production is divided in five stages – preparation of soil and sowing of hemp; growing of hemp; hemp harvesting; hemp processing; and realisation of the produced output. The evaluation of risks was made within a system of 18 risks, divided in 6 main groups – agrometeorological; technological and production; personnel; environment; legislative; economical and market risks. The results reviles, that the highest risk level in the entire hemp production and processing process was specific to the group of personnel risks, whereas the lowest – to the group of environmental risks. However, some risks were assessed as the highest for the group of technological and production risks, for instance, the unavailability of machinery during hemp harvesting and processing.
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