Cyprus: Harvesting the Hemp- "first industrial hemp harvest on the island since the 1930s"

Evie Andreou cyprus-mail.com August 31, 2014

Hemp pickers in Akaki harvesting the crop. Photo: Facebook

IT WAS simple curiosity that got me out of bed at 5.30am on a very hot August Sunday morning to go and check out the hype surrounding the first industrial hemp harvest on the island since the 1930s.

The organisers had invited the public to help harvest the crop and arranged a convoy of cars from Nicosia to Akaki. Hemp is a variety of the cannabis plant, containing negligible amounts of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the stuff that gets you high. Without it, the plant, which used to be widely grown around the world, including Cyprus, has a host of other uses from bricks, to textiles to paper and even as food.

We had been told to bring pruning shears, long pants, closed shoes and water. The meeting point was Makarios Stadium at 7am. I was early and half thought I’d be stood up but by 6.50am people began to arrive.


Clement Ryan at work on the hemp harvest Photo: Facebook

“Are you here for the harvest?” was the question everyone was asking.
Soon, Maria (she wanted to keep her surname private), arrived and introduced herself as the woman behind the hemp field and everyone – around 30 people in all – headed off...MORE
http://cyprus-mail.com/2014/08/31/harvesting-the-hemp/