ADAPTABILITY OF INDUSTRIAL HEMP TO DIFFERENT LEVELS OF HEAVY METAL IN SOIL

Soils give rise to many environmental problems, such as heavy metals pollutant that reduces water resources, leading to serious health problems for humans directly or indirectly, by the contamination of the food crops. Moreover, the cultivation of industrial crops in heavy metals contaminated land improves several ecosystem services, such as biodiversity maintenance and nutrient and water cycling, while promoting soil decontamination through a phytoremediation technique. This biological technique uses plants to remediate the contaminated land while generating economic value in land that used to be unproductivity. However, industrial crop selection is cruciafor good results of phytoremediation. In this way, hemp appears suitable for heavy metals contaminated soil. It is possible to obtain high-quality cellulose (stems), oil, and hemp proteins when using different varieties. Still, irequires special attention for several physiological features, crop management, and site-specific selection of genotypes. This work aimed to evaluate the tolerance of two genotypes of industrial hemp (Futura 75 and Kc Dora) in soils contaminated by three heavy metals (Ni, Cd, Pb). The results confirm the possibility to use hemp as possible crops for phytoremediation. Moreover the difference observed among the two studied genotypes suggest the possibility to investigate others genotypes.