22-418. DUTIES AND AUTHORITY OF DIRECTOR. The duty of enforcing the provisions of this chapter and carrying out its provisions and requirements shall be vested in the director pursuant to section 22-103, Idaho Code. Additional duties of the director or his authorized agents shall include, but are not limited to, the following:

(1) To establish and maintain or make provision for seed testing facilities.

(2) To have analyses and tests of samples of seed made as necessary.

(3) To make or provide for making purity and germination tests of seeds for farmers and dealers on request.

(4) The director of the department of agriculture may by rule set the service and license fees to be collected. Fees so collected shall be paid into the state treasury and credited to the agriculture department inspection account, created in section 22-104, Idaho Code, and such fees shall be used only to pay the costs of operating the state seed laboratory.

(5) To enter upon any public or private premises during regular business hours in order to have access to seeds subject to this chapter.

(6) To sample and inspect agricultural, vegetable, flower, tree and shrub seeds transported, sold, offered or exposed for sale, or delivered under a contract within this state for sowing purposes, at such time and place and to such extent as he may deem necessary to determine whether the seeds are in compliance with the provisions of this chapter, and to notify promptly the person who transported, sold, offered or exposed the seed for sale of any violation.

(7) To issue and enforce a "stop-sale" order to the owner or custodian of any lot of seed which is in violation of any of the provisions of this chapter, which order shall prohibit further sale or delivery under a contract of the seed until such officer has evidence that the law has been complied with; provided, that in respect to seeds which have been denied sale as provided in this paragraph, the owner or custodian of such seeds shall have the right to appeal from such order to the district court of the county in which the seeds are found, praying for a judgment as to the justification of the order and for the discharge of such seed from the order prohibiting the sale in accordance with the findings of this court; and provided further, that the provisions of this paragraph shall not be construed as limiting the right of the enforcement officer to proceed as authorized under other sections of this chapter.

(8) To cooperate with the United States department of agriculture and other agencies in seed law enforcement.

(9) To notify in writing, the proprietor of any plant variety protected under the United States plant variety protection act when any sample of a proprietor’s variety is received for testing at the Idaho state seed laboratory.

(10) To cooperate fully with the proprietor of any plant variety which is protected under the United States plant variety protection act to secure for the proprietor the full protection afforded under the United States plant variety protection act or the federal seed act, or both, by releasing to the proprietor any and all knowledge as may come to the attention of the director or his authorized agents in regard to the illegal use of any United States protected variety.

(11) To prescribe and adopt rules governing:

(a) The methods of sampling, inspecting, analysis tests and examination of seed, and the tolerances to be followed in the administration of this chapter, which shall be in general accord with officially prescribed practice in interstate commerce;

(b) Reasonable standards of germination for vegetable seeds and flower seeds;

(c) Labeling of flower seeds;

(d) A list of the kinds of flower seeds subject to the flower seed germinations labeling requirements;

(e) A list of the tree and shrub species subject to germination labeling requirements;

(f) A list of species that may be tetrazolium tested in lieu of germination testing.

History:

[22-418, added 1951, ch. 243, sec. 5, p. 508; am. 1971, ch. 216, sec. 1, p. 969; am. 1974, ch. 18, sec. 6, p. 364; am. 1987, ch. 188, sec. 5, p. 378; am. 1991, ch. 171, sec. 3, p. 418; am. 1992, ch. 70, sec. 1, p. 204; am. 1998, ch. 203, sec. 1, p. 721.]