Biosolids can serve as a one-two punch for farmers looking to improve yields and margins — reviving dead soil and offering an alternative to synthetic fertilisers — as the crop input could be helpful for growers wanting to tap into the budding industrial hemp market, as Jeffrey Yarosz, founder of Flura, told AgTechNavigator.
The hemp and genetics company Flura is offering its seeds to a research pilot programme in collaboration with the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago to test the effectiveness of biosolids — approved by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for use as a fertiliser — for use in industrial hemp fiber and grain production, Yarosz explained.
The biosolids are expected to improve fiber yields and soil health, Yarosz explained. The ready supply of biosolids — largely from waste — can also help growers manage fertiliser costs, which have cut into margins this year, he pointed out.
“What biosolids do for soil is pretty remarkable because it is organic matter, and it is processed, and the nutrients are mineralized. It actually can take dead soil and turn it into living soil in a year,” Yarosz elaborated. Biosolids are “a pragmatic thing in the middle, where cities and farmers can meet in the middle because let’s face it — farmers grow things, cities buy things.”
The pilot programme conducted its first full harvest and analysis last month, with results planned for early 2026, as shared in a press release. Additionally, a second trial will be replicated next year to ensure outcomes, with the results being submitted to a peer-reviewed publication.
Can hemp be the next big cover crop in the U.S.?
The research project comes as the industrial hemp market continues to make inroads and can be a compelling crop for growers to plant next year, Yarosz explained.
Hemp production for open and under protection totaled $445 million, a 40% increase from 2023, and total planted acreage totaled 45,294 in 2024, up 64% from 2023, according to USDA data posted in April 2025.
“When you are talking about industrial hemp, you are talking about more than a trillion dollars of durable, regulated industrial demand between all of the different applications — building materials, wood, fiber board, animal feed, human feed, [and] the actual oil being used as biodiesel. These are not small. This is not smoke-shop products. These are real industries that are very established,” Yarosz elaborated.
He added, “We always say hemp can really make a lot of these things better, and if farmers are struggling right now, why not make a little more money on an emerging industry?”
Unlike traditional row crops, hemp does not need the same nutrients as corn and soybeans, and it requires little to no pesticides and fungicides, Yarosz said. Additionally, hemp can serve both as a cover crop and a cash crop, he added.
“You have lower input costs, and you actually have a cash crop on top of it. You are talking about more profitable acres. And then at the end of the day, the great thing is, if you only did it for a year, you have great soil now,” Yarosz elaborated.
