Russ Jessup, Ph.D., and his team of student researchers see themselves as explorers, charting the future of a new crop – they are the Texas A&M AgriLife Research Industrial Hemp Breeding Team.
Facing the unknown and exploring, building and strengthening the new crop from the ground up is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity the students and Jessup, AgriLife Research hemp breeder in the Texas A&M College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Department of Soil and Crop Sciences, said they couldn't pass up.
"We are casting a wide net to position Texas A&M as the leader in hemp research," Jessup said. "I don't know of any other program working on the breadth of research on industrial hemp as we have in this program."
Jessup's team of four graduate and four undergraduate students aims to develop hemp cultivars made for the Texas heat and tolerant of drought that will consistently meet the state's legal requirements.
Read more at: agrilifetoday.tamu.edu