Launching Amplify technology to double hemp yield: a new climate-smart cash crop for American farmers

New West Genetics will double industrial hemp grain yields and improve fiber quality by commercializing existing genetics intellectual property. By doing so hemp will become an economically viable new rotation crop for American farmers that provides manufacturers and consumers with healthy new protein and lipid ingredient options. The intellectual property centers around a genetic factor which when used as a sire in a cross skews the proportion of female plants in a hemp population from the traditional dioecious norm of 50% to a level of 90% or greater in the F1 generation. This inherently increases grain yield since male plants make only pollen. Additional yield increases are expected from heterosis; thus we refer to the F1 seed as Amplify. Further we have identified specific crosses where the F1 is 100% female plants which paves the way to a scalable hybrid seed production system such as the CMS/Rf system used in other major crops. To make this a reality we are proposing the following objectives: 1) Demonstrate that the technology can create Amplify consistently above 90% females 2) Demonstrate the ability to generate Amplify seed which significantly improves grain yield and fiber quality relative to existing check varieties 3) Identifying new methods for cost-effectively producing Amplify planting seed and 4) Examining the carbon index of hemp relative to other commodity crops. The project addresses the USDA NIFA SBIR Program Priorities of Topic Area 8.2 by improving grain yields and fiber quality of hemp through the application of traditional plant breeding approaches.