PRATT, Kansas – This summer marks the third year that neighboring Kansans have grown industrial hemp. Yet growing the less sexy cousin of the plant associated with getting high and some medicinal uses has proved riskier and more difficult than many farmers expected. Consequently, the number of licenses issued this year is less than half versus 2020. “There were some misconceptions about the ease of marketability of it,” Braden Hoch, the state’s industrial hemp program supervisor, said. The risk of any agricultural operation is compounded by an ever-changing set of state and federal rules. Now, some hemp farmers and processors want more government help to reduce risk and encourage innovation. Shining Star Hemp Co. is one of 11 licensed hemp processors in Kansas. Outside of the industrial building near the Pratt municipal airport in southcentral Kansas, where Shining Star operates, sits rows of 1,200-pound bags full of industrial hemp stalks, grains and flowers. Inside, workers open and…