Field inspections, field tracking, seedstock planted, and record keeping are all integrated parts of a comprehensive Certification or Quality Assurance program to insure genetic identity and purity of either seed or identity preserved grain crops. Production sites need to be clearly mapped and be defined field areas for specific crop or value-added grain production.
For seed and identity preserved crops, one or more field inspections are commonly made at a convenient plant growth stage(s) when phenotypic or morphological features can be assessed to determine genetic purity and identity. Trained OSIA field inspectors apply sequential sampling to measure genetic purity. Other agronomic field conditions such as weed infestation, disease, insect pressure, and volunteer plant of previous year crops are recorded on an official field report.