Lisa Herbert reported this story on Monday, April 18, 2016 12:46:00

KIM LANDERS: The cultivation of medicinal cannabis could soon become a vibrant new sector in Australian agriculture.



Although the Federal Government is still developing a legal framework to allow its cultivation and supply, a farm in north-west New South Wales is a possible site for Australia's first cannabis crop.



Lisa Herbert reports.



LISA HERBERT: Nestled in the Peel Valley near Tamworth, Dan Eden is 47 hectares of fertile river-front country.



And it's here that Australia's first medicinal cannabis crop could be grown.



LUCY HASLAM: We see that this as a great opportunity for a great Australian primary industry.



LISA HERBERT: Lucy Haslam lost her adult son Dan to bowel cancer last year. As he battled the disease, he and his family campaigned for the legalisation of medicinal cannabis in Australia.



Now a charity set up by the Haslam family has bought Dan Eden and Lucy Haslam is keen for properties like this to take a piece of the estimated $250 billion global medicinal cannabis pie.



LUCY HASLAM: Why would we sit back and let foreign companies come into Australia and do what we can do for ourselves? We will do more for Australian patients than foreign controlled investors.



LISA HERBERT: The international agronomist who will oversee what could be Australia's first crop says farming conditions here are perfect for the crop's growth.



Because growing cannabis still isn't legal, he only wants to be known as Seamus. But he says the eyes of the world's medicinal cannabis industry are focussed down under.



SEAMUS: Australia has the potential to lead the world here on exactly what cannabis is supposed to be grown and exactly how it's supposed to produced: outdoors in the sun, naturally.



This is essentially the Holy Grail. Every company in the world wants to come to Australia because they know the potential we have here to grow not only a good crop but a world standard crop.



LISA HERBERT: While much of the world's cannabis crops are grown indoors, Seamus says it's sunlight that is needed to produce the chemicals most of use to patients. And while THC is the most widely known active chemical in cannabis, it's by no means the only one.



SEAMUS: Now just because one variety has a higher amount of THC in it does not necessarily mean it is a better variety that another. THC is like an engine, it has to be in there. If we take that out, it no longer becomes as anywhere near as effective as what it is when it's in there. But having too much THC and not enough of the rest of the chemicals, it's out of balance.



LISA HERBERT: Once approved by government, the farm near Tamworth will initially grow between 10 and 15 varieties, yielding about one tonne of cannabis flowers or heads per acre.



Ten per cent of that will become the extractable oil for use in patient treatments.



SEAMUS: Everybody is different. A type of variety that you can find extremely effective for you mightn't be so effective for me. And that's where custom medication is going to come into this.



LISA HERBERT: Agronomist Seamus believes the export potential for Australian grown medicinal cannabis is huge.



SEAMUS: Australia is the only country that can grow every type of variety under the sun. If you want to do the same thing anywhere else you've got to either go to South America or you got to go to the African countries. We're extremely politically safe over here. Northern Europe, England, Ireland, Canada they can't produce high end Sativas. We can produce them down here. They're what's a high grade medicinal product.



LISA HERBERT: Federal Agriculture Minister Barnaby Joyce says Australian farmers have the skills and the technology to become cultivate world-leading cannabis crops.



BARNABY JOYCE: I believe that it would be a travesty if we find out that the fruits of our labour are only to be recognised in the import of a product from another country so the beneficiary of this are farmers somewhere else.



Let's make sure that they're our farmers.



LISA HERBER: And while Barnaby Joyce won't put a timeframe on just when the regulatory framework for the cultivation of medicinal cannabis will be ready, growers are expecting high security and big fences will be compulsory to keep unwanted humans and animals away from cannabis crops.



SEAMUS: Kangaroos, wallabies, possums - possums love it. They will come along and devour the leaves. Cows love it. Every animal and every living species on the planet has an endocanabinoid system.



So it depends on how much of a predator the animal actually is.



If it feels that is hasn't got any threats in the area, it will consume the flower and medicate itself for a few hours. And if it's an animal that does have a predator it will simply eat the leaves as like a health tonic to it.



KIM LANDERS: An agronomist who wants to be known as Seamus ending that report from Lisa Herbert.