| Current state and Commonwealth regulation | High | Defines what is legally possible and what compliance costs may apply. | Licensing, transport, production and sale constraints. | Must be checked for currency. | Producer, Supply Chain, NELN / Member Organisations |
| Official statistics | High | Independent and methodologically transparent. | Regional context, land use, trade and economic baselines. | May not isolate hemp. | Producer, Supply Chain, Environment |
| Peer-reviewed agronomic studies | High | Useful for production suitability and limitations. | Yield, inputs, soil, water, pests and production systems. | Geographic transferability may be weak. | Producer, Environment |
| Peer-reviewed environmental studies and LCAs | High | Required to test environmental claims. | Soil carbon, emissions, water, biodiversity and lifecycle claims. | Often system-specific and not directly local. | Environment |
| Processor specifications and price schedules | High | Direct test of market access. | Quality, price, volume, timing and processing fees. | Commercial confidentiality. | Producer, Supply Chain |
| Buyer contracts or written purchase terms | High | Strong evidence of demand. | Market verification and price risk. | May be unavailable or conditional. | Producer, Supply Chain |
| Enterprise budgets and grower records | High | Direct test of producer economics. | Gross margins, costs and sensitivity analysis. | May be scarce or confidential. | Producer |
| Local climate, soil and land-use data | High | Determines regional relevance. | Suitability and comparator baseline. | Region boundaries may not align. | Producer, Environment |
| Agronomist expert interviews | Medium | Helps interpret local suitability and gaps. | Practical feasibility and risk. | Expert judgement needs corroboration. | Producer, Environment |
| Industry association reports | Medium | Useful for source discovery and industry structure. | Contacts, market categories and context. | Possible advocacy bias. | Supply Chain, Producer |
| Market research reports | Medium | May provide market size and trend context. | Background market analysis. | Forecast-heavy and methods may be opaque. | Supply Chain |
| International government and industry data | Medium | Useful where Australian evidence is limited. | Benchmarking and mature-market lessons. | Requires transferability assessment. | All |
| Media articles and trade press | Low | Useful for leads and timelines. | Identifying stakeholders and claimed developments. | Not sufficient for findings. | Supply Chain, NELN / Member Organisations |
| Promotional material | Low | May identify claims needing testing. | Claim discovery only. | High bias and low verification value. | All |
| Social media and informal commentary | Low | May reveal perceptions or leads. | Communications risk or stakeholder leads. | Not evidence for findings. | NELN / Member Organisations |
