New Mexico Highlands University (NMHU) is offering a certificate program to prepare its students to either start a hemp business or cultivate hemp.
The state legalized industrial hemp production in 2019 and anticipates 400 jobs will be created soon.
NMHU is offering two 18-credit tracks beginning in January 2021. The business track, focused on entrepreneurship and innovation, includes classes on entrepreneurship, innovation management, and project management. The science track, focused on cultivation, includes courses on plant physiology and two hemp production courses. Both tracks require an entrepreneurial forum, an introduction to hemp production, and a class on drugs in American society.
While the school is currently awaiting final approval by the New Mexico Higher Education Department and the New Mexico Higher Learning Commission, Highlands business professor Heath Anderson tells Hemp Grower that it now meets all their requirements.
“We believe that industrial hemp is a growth industry that can benefit the economic development of Northeastern New Mexico,” Anderson says, noting the opportunities for hemp “from textiles to bioplastics, biofuels, and medicinal applications.”
“The most important goal of the new certificate program is to prepare students with the professional skills needed to be successful in the burgeoning legal hemp industry,” he says. “It’s an opportunity to create an offering that’s very relevant in the business market.”
The New Mexico Department of Agriculture (NMDOA) agrees. In an Oct. 23 press release on federal approval of the state’s hemp regulatory plan, the state says that the hemp industry “has potential for more job opportunities in the future, whether it’s field production or greenhouse production, or value-added products from extractors, manufacturers, specialty stores and hemp breeding operations.” The state added that its sister agency, the New Mexico Economic Development Department, anticipates creating 400 hemp-related jobs using its Local Economic Development Act funding.
