Illinois Crop Improvement Association, Inc. | Corporate Overview

Illinois Crop Improvement Association, Inc. (ICIA) performs its duties and responsibilities within a comprehensive framework of authority granted from multiple governmental and private bodies. In each instance, ICIA is required to function as an independent third party.

ICIA is designated by the University of Illinois’ Agriculture Experiment Station (AES) to serve as the state’s official seed certifying agency. The University is authorized to grant this official status by State of Illinois seed law. The State of Illinois is authorized to implement seed certification programs under the U.S. Federal Seed Act. In essence, ICIA is accountable to the University of Illinois, in addition to state and federal government for seed certification program administration.

Illinois’ state seed law requires adherence to genetic standards and operational procedures set forth by the international seed certification body known as the Association of Official Seed Certifying Agencies (AOSCA). ICIA, therefore, maintains an active role within AOSCA as a member to assist in establishing genetic standards for varietal purity and operational procedures that allow for interagency certification.

Under a memorandum of understanding (MOU) issued by the United States Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Marketing Service, ICIA is designated to administer the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s (OECD) agricultural seed certification scheme in Illinois. From time to time, ICIA has been further designated to administer programs in Barbados, Costa Rica and Hawaii.

Agreement with the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico Department of Agriculture (PRDA) allows extension of ICIA’s certification authority for both the AOSCA and OECD programs to Puerto Rico for certain crops. Examples include corn, milo, soybeans, peanuts, sunflowers, cotton etc.

An additional MOU between the Illinois Department of Agriculture, the United States Department of Agriculture and ICIA permits ICIA to conduct field inspections required for the issuance of federal phytosanitary certificates. ICIA is also accredited by the National Seed Health Initiative to perform field phytosanitary inspections for the purpose of federal phytosanitary certificate issuance.

ICIA is granted broad authority under its charter as a State of Illinois non-profit corporation to serve and support the agricultural industry of Illinois. The corporation is governed by a 13 member elected board of directors.

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