DiP – iQ-Hemp — Digital Quality Assurance for the Industrial Hemp Value Chain
What was previously based on years of experience and subjective assessment is now being replaced by precise digital analysis: The quality assessment of industrial hemp.
The DiP – iQ-Hemp project develops AI-supported systems that enable objective quality assessment and documentation throughout the entire process from harvest to the finished product.
DiP – iQ-Hanf is testing the economic production of quality hemp under changed climatic conditions in the central German dry region. Solutions are being developed for the establishment of a climate-resilient cultivation system and suitable industrial hemp varieties for the coupling of fibres and oil in the region.

Industrial hemp is a sustainable raw material with growing importance and a basic material for ecological building materials, such as those produced in the Geisel Valley by a new hemp processing plant in the future. The plant impresses with its versatile use in areas such as construction, lightweight and construction materials, textiles, nutrition and medicine.

Through several years of trial cultivation with the transfer of the findings into agricultural practice, recommendations for resilient hemp varieties and cultivation methods are being developed at the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg for the production of quality hemp. Crucial quality parameters, such as the optimal roasting state (field roasting) of the hemp straw as well as processed hemp fibres and shiives (wood core of the stem), are automatically detected and classified using innovative image analysis methods.

In the Central German mining area, hemp-growing farms and the emerging processing plant for industrial hemp in the Geisel Valley can use these new findings and technologies to produce high-quality building and insulation materials from regional hemp.

With the targeted cultivation area of 600 hectares, an important centre of the hemp industry in Central Germany is being created. The attachment solutions and digital tools ensure quality and cost-effectiveness across the entire value chain.

DiP-iQ-Hemp thus not only strengthens the position of the Central German mining area as an innovation location for digital agriculture, but also creates concrete economic perspectives. The combination of traditional industrial hemp cultivation with digital innovation makes the region a pioneer for sustainable bioeconomy.