Abstract
Although the agriculture and the environment have been sustained for many millennia, these are now under stress and pose a global threat in general and to India in particular, mainly due to wanton exploitation of natural resources for development. The need for sustainable development of agriculture and the environment has never been more urgent than now. Fortunately, industrial hemp, a non-psychoactive species of Cannabis sativa L, offers solutions to address several aspects required for the sustainable development of agriculture and ecology. Because of Cannabis’s fast growth (ca. 4–5 months crop cycle) and capturing 2–3 times the carbon dioxide per hectare per year compared to the forest, coupled with its vast spectrum of applications, hemp presents an excellent opportunity for sustainable agriculture and climate change mitigation. Hemp applications include nutrition (seeds), health care (CBD), fibers (bast and hurd) which can be used for a variety of products like elegant clothes, bags, sanitary articles, high-end paper and construction materials. Also, there are several other new and innovative applications of hemp, such as 3-D printing filaments, nano carbon sheets (supercapacitors, energy storage), jewelry, cables replacing harmonic steel, footwear, etc. Since all these products are made from renewable and fast-growing hemp, they can significantly contribute to sustainable growth, provided suitable and encouraging policies for hemp cultivation and its supply chain are implemented.
Hemp can help farmers and entrepreneurs economically and the consumers in getting eco-friendly products from renewable hemp. It has been shown that hemp can help in the sustainable growth of both ecology and economy as both have to grow hand in hand instead of at the cost of each other. India being at the cusp of the next giant leap of development and growth, hemp cultivation must be seriously looked into by the governments, farmers, and enterprises to achieve sustainable agriculture and environment and inclusive and responsible economic growth. In fact, hemp can contribute to the United Nation’s 15 out of 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
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Abbreviations
- BCE:
-
Before common era
- Bn:
-
Billion
- CAGR:
-
Compounded annualized growth rate
- CBD:
-
Cannabidiol
- CE:
-
Common era
- ES:
-
Ecosystem services
- GDP:
-
Gross domestic product
- HBP:
-
Hemp bio plastic
- IFOAM:
-
International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movement
- IPCC:
-
International Panel for Climate Change
- MDG:
-
Millennium development goals
- MFA:
-
Multifunctional agriculture
- MT:
-
Metric ton
- NRC:
-
National Research Council
- PCT:
-
Patent Co-operation Treaty
- PLA:
-
Poly lactic acid
- SDG:
-
Sustainability development goals
- THC:
-
Tetrahydrocannabinol
- UK:
-
United Kingdom
- UN:
-
United Nations
- UNDESA:
-
United Nations Department of Environment and Social Affairs
- UNRMDG:
-
United Nations Report of Millennium Development Goals
- USD:
-
United States Dollar
- USDA:
-
United States Department of Agriculture
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Authors are grateful to Prof. Dinesh C. Agrawal, Chaoyang University of Technology, Taiwan for suggestions that have improved the quality of the present article.
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Tripathi, A., Kumar, R. (2022). Industrial Hemp for Sustainable Agriculture: A Critical Evaluation from Global and Indian Perspectives. In: Agrawal, D.C., Kumar, R., Dhanasekaran, M. (eds) Cannabis/Hemp for Sustainable Agriculture and Materials. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-8778-5_2
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