IRRIGATED CROP Newly planted land at the IVCRC.
The Next Big Crop? Studying Hemp in the Imperial Valley
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ndustrial hemp is becoming a big business in the United States. Projections show that it has the potential to earn billions of dollars and create thousands of jobs in the next several years. Industrial hemp is a form of cannabis sativa with less than 0.3 percent tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, making it entirely distinct from its cousin, marijuana. Hemp is used in the production of goods such as rope, lotion, cannabidiol (CBD) oil, sunscreen, clothing, and paper. Research centers across the country are beginning to study the plant to prepare for its promising economic future. The Imperial Valley Conservation Research Center (IVCRC) in Brawley, California, is on the cutting edge of industrial hemp research. Parker Kenyon, a writer for Irrigation Leader, spoke with Jim Wood, director of the IVCRC, about the center’s research on industrial hemp, the crop’s future in the Imperial Valley, and how the public perceives the operation. Parker Kenyon: Please tell us about your professional background. Jim Wood: Well, it is interesting—most of my background has nothing to do with agriculture and agricultural research. I went to Purdue University, where I graduated from the Krannert School of Business, and I earned an MBA from the University of Cincinnati. I then worked for manufacturing companies for 20 years or so, primarily for the Gillette Company, where I was an operations manager for a number of their operations. Then, for almost 20 years, I ran my own business, a manufacturing operation based in Mexicali,
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Mexico, where we made plastic parts used primarily for packaging. Three years ago, I took the position of director of the IVCRC. Parker Kenyon: Please give us some information about the IVCRC. Jim Wood: The center was established in 1951 as a U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) research station. It was operated and funded by the USDA until the year 2000, when the USDA shut down some of its research stations around the country, including the one here in Brawley, California. A group of farmers who had already been involved in directing activities at the station took over the center. They formed a board of directors and began operating the center as an independently run nonprofit research center. The primary role of the research center is to support research that benefits the Imperial Valley. We have roughly 130 acres of small plots available that agriculture companies and farmers can lease to conduct trials. Customers lease fields of anywhere from 1 acre to around 10 acres and do their own research in the fields. Our role is to provide farming services to the customers, such as land preparation and irrigation water. More recently, we have partnered on some projects that we manage ourselves. One example is a project that we work on with Sandia National Laboratories involving growing algae and testing the algae for its potential to IRRIGATION LEADER
