A farmer from Matamata has revealed that he will abandon his first hemp crop, grown as part of a legal trial, because he “found the covert nature of hemp farming a nuisance”.

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The man, who wanted to remain anonymous because of fears that his father would learn about his hemp trial, told Stuff.co.nz yesterday [Wednesday] that he has decided to plant maize in the future because it attracts less attention.


The New Zealand government issued 15 licences to grow industrial hemp last year, although the trial sites were kept secret due to Ministry of Health concerns that some people would try to harvest marijuana from the plants.


“It looks a lot like marijuana,” admitted the farmer: “It was only a matter of time before people found out about it.


“I decided it wasn’t for me.”

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The farmer admitted however that when hemp becomes more widely acceptable, he might consider growing it again: “It has great environmentally friendly properties.”