Last week, the EPA for the first time approved 10 products for application to hemp. In September of 2019, when the EPA first received the applications to add hemp as a new use for these existing products, NAAA reviewed the applications and found seven of them had labels that allowed for aerial application, while the remaining three did not.

NAAA submitted comments to the EPA reminding the agency of the many benefits of aerial application and importance of allowing hemp growers to take advantage of those benefits. The comments iterated the importance of maintaining aerial application on the label for the seven products that allowed it when hemp is added as a new use. The comments also suggested that adding aerial application to the labels for the three products that currently did not allow for aerial application would be beneficial to growers. You can read NAAA’s comments here.

Adding hemp to these existing product labels was precipitated by the passage of the 2018 Farm Bill, which removed hemp from the Controlled Substances Act. Hemp is defined as the plant Cannabis sativa L. and any part of that plant with a delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol concentration of not more than 0.3% on a dry weight basis. As a result, interest in hemp production has increased, along with the need to make pesticides available for the hemp industry.

NAAA will continue to monitor for opportunities to comment to the EPA to ensure aerial use of products that aerial applicator customers need in order to control insects, diseases, weeds and other pests.

More information on the approved hemp products can be found here.