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The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced Tuesday it has established a Domestic Hemp Production Program, bringing long-awaited guidelines to what many believe will be a burgeoning and profitable industry.

The 2018 Farm Bill removed hemp, marijuana’s mild cousin, from the controlled substances list and mandated the USDA make a plan for its production. The predicted cash crop can be used to make plastics, clothing, food and legal CBD products, an industry predicted to be worth as much as $22 billion in coming years.

Grown legally, the plant has only small amounts of the compound THC, the active ingredient in marijuana that causes a high.

In August, Gov. Phil Murphy signed a state law allowing farmers to grow hemp. It requires producers to register with the state Department of Agriculture and submit to periodic testing to determine whether a crop’s THC level is below 0.3 percent. States that have not passed such laws cannot submit plans to produce it, but must allow the transportation of the crop across state lines.

Now, the next step for New Jersey is to submit a plan for USDA approval to launch hemp production.

As the November timeline for federal rules drew closer without an announcement, some worried that the there would not be an announcement in time for farmers to start planning for the 2020 growing season.

“We said we’d get it done for producers to make planting decisions for 2020,” USDA Secretary Sonny Perdue said in a statement. “And we followed through.”

The department said it will publish an interim final rule in the Federal Register Thursday allowing farmers to grow hemp under federally-approved plans. It gives farmers eligibility for some USDA programs, such as insurance, and mandates requirements for how to track where hemp is produced, licensing and testing for the mandatory THC threshold.

In states that do not put forth their own plans, but have passed laws allowing the production of hemp, the federal rule will guide those growers.

But states that do submit plans, which New Jersey has said it plans to do, will oversee producers under their own rules. Those rules must include procedures for tracking the land where hemp is grown, testing the product for THC and disposing of noncompliant plants, inspecting farms and ensuring they are operating within the state regulations, officials said.

“Now that the USDA is releasing the interim final rule on hemp, we are taking the important step of assuring our rules comply with the USDA proposal so New Jersey will gain federal approval in a timely manner,” the state Department of Agriculture Secretary Douglas Fisher said in a statement.

The USDA is encouraging states to review the rule, make any adjustments to their plans to stay in compliance and then submit their applications for approval. The federal agency must then rule on those plans within 60 days.

As many as 500,000 acres of hemp were grown in the U.S. this year, officials said. While New Jersey had a pilot program, no hemp was planted in the state during that time.

"We are always excited when there are new economic opportunities for our farmers, and we hope the ability to grow hemp will pave the way for new products and markets,” said Perdue.

This story has been updated to include comment from the New Jersey Department of Agriculture.

Amanda Hoover can be reached at ahoover@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @amandahoovernj. Find NJ.com on Facebook.

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