The Cultivation of Industrial Hemp as Alternative Crop in a Less-Favoured Agricultural Area in Southern Italy: The Pignola Case Study

Industrial hemp cultivation has the potential to be an environmentally friendly and highly
sustainable crop and it can fit well in crop rotation practices to increase soil fertility. For this study,
two commercial varieties of industrial hemp with low tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) content were
used to test its reintroduction chance in the study area and to evaluate its response in terms of
yield with respect to the soil and drought conditions of the area. During the vegetative period, noninvasive
measures of the soil's water status were performed usingWatermark probes and ground
penetrating radar. In addition, hemp crops vigour monitoring was performed by means of Sentinel
2 multispectral optical remote sensing data. In the absence of precipitation and/or irrigation, and
with high consumption of soil water by the hemp crop due to evapotranspiration, the crop has
completed its cycle thanks to its resistance to water stress conditions. From the soil water and satellite
monitoring results, there is a good agreement with the field results in terms of water stress and its
effects on crop vigour. This study contributes to a better understanding of the possibility of hemp
crop reintroduction in areas where water deficit occurs, which could open up the opportunity for
selecting hemp crop cultivars that can be grown under different agro-ecological conditions and are
also of great commercial interest for decision makers involved in sustainable crop management and
in the reduction of fertilizers and pollutants released into the environment.