Education Guide
Four ways growers can always be compliance-ready
In the heavily-regulated cannabis industry, demonstrating compliance is a necessity. Whether you contract with one of the major track-and-trace providers, or your state has its own system for reporting to regulators, compliance is about more than just following the rules.
Given the high stakes, many in the industry feel burdened by compliance requirements. However, cultivators can easily incorporate compliance into their daily routines if they have the right technology at their disposal. The days of the grower operating on gut feeling alone are over. Using technology to collect and analyze data from their grow makes reporting easier than ever for cultivators.
Here are four ways growers can leverage technology and data to improve compliance:
- Track and monitor plants at every stage. Seasoned growers are used to relying on their eyes and instincts, but not everything is visible. Using sensors to see inside the substrate and track what’s going on with lighting, water, EC, drybacks, VPD, and more provides growers with real-time insights. Having access to cultivation data behind gives growers the information they need to ensure they’re always operating in compliance.
- Look for opportunities to improve your processes. Growers can learn a lot from history Tracking past harvest details – like deleafing time, plant reactions to lighting or irrigation, and top-yielding cultivars – gives cannabis businesses the knowledge they need to scale successfully. If there’s an issue, growers can use historical data to root out the details and proactively make improvements before they become problems.
- Opt for cloud storage over handwritten notes. Relying on tools that are easily lost, erased, or otherwise susceptible to human error increases the potential for headaches (or worse) when regulators come knocking. Using technology to collect cultivation data and saving it in the cloud means everyone in your cannabis business has access to actionable results anytime, from anywhere.
- Remember the big picture. Demonstrating compliance is the last push before your products can get into consumer’s hands. Growers who track and monitor as they go are better equipped to catch errors before they become major issues. Then when it’s time to report, instead of sifting through pages of notes or being sidetracked by an outage with the state’s track-and-trace system, the data is safely stored in the cloud and ready to share with regulators.
Between expanding legalization, a broader consumer market, and rising competition, the cannabis industry is maturing quickly, and cultivators need to rely upon more than gut-reaction when deciding how to run their business. For cultivators to make better business decisions and continue to operate in compliance, access to data is key.
