The purpose of the Quality Assurance (QA) program is to provide complete service for seed merchandised as varieties, hybrids, brands or blends that are generally not marketed as certified seed. Program guidelines are very similar to certification guidelines and enable the seed producer to market seed with the assurance to each customer that the seed is of known purity and quality as verified by an unbiased third-party agency.
The objectives of the Quality Assurance Program are to provide:
- coordinated, professional and unbiased field inspections, laboratory testing, and post-control growouts for quality control in seed production, conditioning, and marketing
- unbiased record system to meet state and federal seed law requirements, assess royalties or research fees and to help solve potential problems with customers and seed suppliers
- marketing image of sound quality assurance for selling products not using the certification program
- seed buyers assurance that the seed product has met genetic purity standards related a known description across seed lots and years of production
- product identification
- liaison between genetic suppliers and producers.
NDSSD QA programs comply with the general Quality Assurance guidelines developed by the Association of Seed Certifying Agencies (AOSCA). The QA logo is a recognized AOSCA trademark used by all member agencies and customers around the world to differentiate QA products from commodities. Program participants must meet specific requirements in order to use the AOSCA QA logo.
Quality Assurance programs may be customized to meet the needs of the customer. We can also develop QA programs for customers who don’t need the AOSCA trademarked QA logo. Such programs would not need the AOSCA review process to be implemented.