✻Forecast FarmClimate · Cultivation · Consequence
Warm-season crop ยท Bast fibre

Hemp

Cannabis sativa ssp. indica · Cannabaceae

Hemp is a warm-temperate herbaceous crop that grows best in the 15–28°C range with 600–1200 mm of rain, cropping over a 90–170-day season. Today it is grown mostly in France, China and United States.

Optimal temp
15–28 °C
Annual rain
600–1200 mm
Max altitude
—
Cold limit
6°C
Growing cycle
90–170 d
Climate-fit land
40 % world

How it grows

Hemp
Photo: Lossenelin at English Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 3.0
๐ŸŽ‹ On a tall cane

Hemp is cut from tall, jointed canes.

What it’s worth to grow

$0.74 / kg at the farm gate
$$$$$
Mid-value
pricier than 48% of all crops · #3 of 7 sugar, fibre & industrial
Ranked against similar crops — Sugar, fibre & industrial
Cotton$1.42/kg
Sisal$0.78/kg
Hemp ◀$0.74/kg
Jute$0.72/kg
Rubber$0.67/kg
Sugarcane$0.04/kg
Sugar Beet$0.04/kg

Farm-gate value = the price farmers are paid per kilogram (FAOSTAT producer prices, median of 4 positive country-year observations spanning 2021–2024). It tracks how costly and labour-intensive a crop is to grow — almonds and vanilla command a premium; potatoes and cereals are cheap staples.

Where Earth's climate suits hemp

Global climatic suitability map for Hemp
marginal suitable good excellent unsuitable land
40% of world land

Climatic suitability only — scored for every 0.5° of the planet from this crop's temperature and rainfall tolerances (FAO EcoCrop) on AgroClim 1991–2025 normals (AgERA5 temperature, CHIRPS/ERA5 rainfall). It shows where the rain-fed climate permits the crop, not where it is grown today; irrigation lets many crops thrive in drier country than the map suggests (California, Egypt, the Indus and Nile).

Who grows it — and where the climate merely allows it

Actual production · FAOSTAT 2024
World harvest 0.4M t/yr
France136k t
China106k t
United States27k t
Netherlands25k t
Democratic People's South Korea16k t
Australia13k t
Chile4k t
Poland4k t
Latest reported year. Source: FAO FAOSTAT.
Climatic fit · computed
Where the climate suits it best
Brazil
United States of America
China
India
Dem. Rep. Congo
Australia
Indonesia
Canada
Ranked by suitable land area (EcoCrop×AgroClim). Climate permits far more than is farmed — economics and history decide the rest.

The climate where it grows

France
15°C · 1411 mm/yr
JFMAMJJASOND
China🌧 171% rain · wet
14°C · 1204 mm/yr
JFMAMJJASOND
United States🌧 69% rain · dry
14°C · 1213 mm/yr
JFMAMJJASOND
Netherlands🌧 98% rain · near normal
11°C · 951 mm/yr
JFMAMJJASOND

— mean monthly temperature   ▍ monthly rainfall — averaged over the actual growing areas (the suitable cells) inside each country, so it reflects where the crop is really grown, not the national average. AgroClim 1991–2025 normals. The 🌧 badge is the last 3 months’ rainfall as a percentage of the 1991–2020 CHIRPS normal (through 2025-12) — the current drought/deluge signal.

Climate envelope · FAO EcoCrop

Temperatureoptimum 15–28°C · tolerates 6–32°C
-5°C45°C
Annual rainfalloptimum 600–1200 mm · tolerates 350–4000 mm
0 mm4500 mm
Soil pHoptimum 4.5–8.2 · tolerates 4.5–8.2
3.09.0

Deep bar = optimal range; pale bar = absolute tolerance. Beyond the pale bar the crop fails. Latitude tolerance ±55° · soil pH 4.5–8.2.

Growing calendar & hazards

Season

An annual cycle of roughly 90–170 days from sowing to harvest, so it is timed to fall within the frost-free, adequately-wet part of the year for the location.

What threatens the crop
  • Drought. Relatively drought-hardy, but a failed rainy season still cuts yield sharply where irrigation is absent.

Related crops