Hemp Sowing Seed Production: Assessment of New Approaches in North-Italy

Abstract

Bottlenecks occur as the cultivated area increases and the inappropriate mechanization methods hinder the stable supply of seeds for hemp multiplication. Moreover, the seeds ripen scalarly, and a timely stabilization is required to impede a germinability reduction. The study coupled the delayed sowing of a non-specific hemp variety to a harvesting system allowing for the collection of seeds with other threshing fractions. The final goal was the identification of an innovative route integrating agronomic and mechanical aspects for the improvement of the supply chain of seed production. To this aim, harvesting trials were carried out on the variety Futura sowed at the end of June in North Italy and were collected with a combine equipped with a separator developed for the recovery of threshing residues. The shortening of the growth cycle did not affect the plant height (173 cm on average). The effective working time of the combine was 57% of the total working time and the field efficiency was 1.14 ha h−1, a good performance considering that in our work the seeds was threshed simultaneously to the harvest operation. Seed losses were found to be mostly at the expense of the mowing and threshing system (sector B) but remained below 5%. The separation system allowed for the rescue of 492.20 kg ha−1 (DW basis) of high-value threshing residues.