2023 Laws of Puerto Rico › TITLE TWENTY - Examining Boards and Professional Colleges (§§ 1 — 6033) › Chapter 33 - Board of Examiners of Agronomists; Agronomists Association (§§ 621 — 663) › Subchapter I - Board of Examiners of Agronomists (§§ 621 — 633b) › § 633b - Occupational scope

Agronomy professionals may be contracted to perform but are not limited to the following functions: advisor, agent, specialist, head of project, crop professional, educator or teacher, agroindustrial salesperson, inspector, analyst, technologist, accounts executive or technician.
As per the provisions established in § 621a of this title, the following natural or juridical persons[, public or private,] are subject to contracting agronomists:
(a) Persons who manufacture, distribute, register, transfer, dilute or oversee the quality or residuality or recommend treatments with chemical products for agricultural use, such as: pesticides, fertilizers, growth regulators, among others.
(b) Persons who produce and distribute horticultural or vegetable genetic material (germplasm) and/or products.
(c) Enterprises engaged in agroindustrial production, in the importation, exportation and processing of seeds, plants, fruit, vegetables, fertilizers and all other related materials.
(d) Persons who prepare and implement plans for urban and rural forestation and planting, tree transplanting, green area design, and landscaping. They may also be headed by landscape architects.
(e) Persons who conduct forest inventories, whether in urban or rural zones. They may also be headed by biologists.
(f) Enterprises engaged in the typification, certification, analysis, importation, exportation, intensive production, processing, quality assurance and classification of horticultural or vegetable products.
(g) Persons who provide or offer technical assistance concerning agricultural pest or disease control in forestal, rural or urban areas or structures, or which could affect the storage of perishable goods for consumption.
(h) Persons who conduct agroeconomic studies, assessments on crops or livestock, land, machinery or structures for agricultural use, biotic or abiotic damages or impacts, feasibility and viability of agrobusinesses, as well as the analysis of proposals or hypotheses for agricultural, forestal, mitigation or compensation, or agroindustrial projects.
(i) Persons who import or export formula products ready for use in agriculture and which do not require further manufacturing, mixing or formulating processes. Persons who distribute or conduct the technical promotion of agrochemical, biological or biotechnological products, and animal genetic material; may also be headed by a veterinarian.
(j) Factories engaged in the manufacture, formulation, mixing, analysis and distribution of animal feed.
(k) Persons who design, certify and inspect agroindustrial processing or animal residue control or management systems.
(l) Theme parks in which there is any kind of management, exchange, recovery, and proliferation of exotic species, whether insects, birds or mammals. In intensive projects for the improvement and/or production of high animal genetic engineering. They may also be headed by a veterinarian.
(m) Agroindustrial production enterprises engaged in the typification, certification, analysis, importation, exportation, processing, management, quality assurance, and classification of animal products, such as genetics, eggs, meat, skin, feathers and dairy products, among others.
(n) Entities engaged in teaching, research, advising, training, and disseminating technical information relative to agricultural science, as described above. Agronomy professionals who work as educators in those academic institutions shall be members of the Association.
(o) Persons who offer any kind of certification for the operation of equipment for agricultural use.
(p) Persons who provide or offer technical assistance concerning soil management plans, classification, physical or biochemical studies to assess fertility, microorganisms, nourishing elements or minerals, pollution, suitability for grass and water fountains, tilling, erosion control, organic material, composting, runoffs, percolation, absorption, humidity, bioremediation, and plans for conservation, mitigation or compensation, whether conducted in forestal or agricultural zones or zones with agricultural potential, or agroindustrial, urban or rural zones.
(q) Persons who distribute, design and certify programs, systems, equipment or machinery for agricultural, agroindustrial or forestal use.
(r) Persons who design, coordinate, develop and intervene in agrotourism projects.
(s) Persons who administer or are the managers or are in charge of any personnel who performs any of these work functions, as well as persons who design and implement an economic-commercial public policy relative to livestock, agroindustrial, agrobusiness or aquicultural production.
(t) General advisory services in the development of livestock and environmental projects relative to agricultural science.
(u) Intensive projects for the improvement, development and/or production of high animal genetic engineering, breeding stock or genetic lines. They may also be headed by a veterinarian.
(v) Any other agricultural science activity which could be considered to be related given the whirlwind pace of technological and scientific changes.
It shall not be understood that the provisions herein shall limit in any way the scope of practice for professionals certified by the Commonwealth, relative to these. Further, it shall not be understood that the provisions herein shall limit in any way, when necessary, interdisciplinary development in project management by professionals certified by the Commonwealth.
For the execution of all juridical facts and acts which involve the practice of agronomy, all employers or hirers shall demand that the agronomy professional to be selected show proof of his/her registration into the Roster. Any report, expert opinion, assessments or other acts proper to Agronomists shall be ruled to be null and void or illegal when conducted by persons who are not accredited.
History —Apr. 9, 1941, No. 20, p. 360, added as § 17 on Dec. 13, 2006, No. 265, § 9.