Wildlife benefits of hemp crop revealed

from Farmers Guardian
20 April 2012

A recent study by the Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust (GWCT), has found hemp, in addition to becoming a profitable crop for growers, is also a highly prized crop for swallows and whitethroat.

The study was investigating the wildlife benefits of growing hemp compared with oilseed rape and field beans. It revealed birds used all three crops as habitats for gathering food during the nesting season, but hemp was also used as a roosting site by swallows before their southward migration at the end of the summer.

Flocks of more than 1,000 swallows were seen using the hemp fields on the GWCT’s research farm in Leicestershire. Another migratory bird which was associated with hemp was whitethroat, a warbler which breeds on farmland throughout the UK.

Dr Chris Stoate, head of research at the GWCT research farm, says: “We know hemp has low requirement for inputs such as fertilisers and pesticides, but we needed to investigate whether there are any effects on wildlife of a crop that is relatively new to modern farming systems.

“Our research found numbers of insects, including those used as food by birds, were broadly similar in the three different crop types. Weed cover and weed species did not differ greatly between the crops, which was surprising as hemp grows vigorously, shading out competing weeds so herbicides are not needed.”


The research was carried out at the GWCT’s Allerton Project research farm and was funded by Hemp Technology, a leading processor of hemp for the construction industry.