1985 Move Over Certified – Quality Assurance

In response to the changes in the seed industry, a quality assurance program was established in 1985 for private soybean lines. The AOSCA Quality Assurance (QA) program was initiated after several member agencies started to offer services for non-certified seed and non-certified seed producers. With the assistance of these agencies AOSCA developed and trademarked the QA logo. The QA program’s objectives were to: 1) provide coordinated, professional, unbiased field inspections, laboratory testing and post control growouts for quality control in seed production, conditioning and marketing. 2) To provide an unbiased record system for use in meeting state and federal seed law requirements, for use in assessing royalties or research fees; and to help solve potential problems with customers and seed suppliers. 3) To provide a retail or wholesale marketing image of sound quality control assurance for selling seed products not using the certification program. 4) To provide seed buyers with assurance that a designated seed product has met genetic purity standards related to a known description across lots and years of production, to facilitate product identification, and to provide a liaison between genetic suppliers and producers.