The USDA-ARS Germplasm Introduction and Research Unit (GIRU) is located on a 58-acre farm adjacent to the University of the Virgin Islands on St. Croix. From its inception in 1951 until 1987, the facility was operated as the St. Croix Federal Experiment Station. Between 1952 and 1965, the Station research was devoted to improving agriculture in the Virgin Islands. From 1965 to 1986, pilot tests were conducted at the Station for the control of economically important pests through nonchemical means. The main objective of GIRU since its beginning in 1987 has been to grow, evaluate, and increase seed of quarantined introductions of tropical and subtropical cereals such as sorghum, corn, and rice for the National Plant Germplasm System (NPGS) under USDA-APHIS protocols. The current quarantine program allows restricted germplasm to be evaluated and increased under field conditions rather than the greenhouse conditions required in northern areas of the United States. Information on the germplasm evaluated at GIRU is available to scientists and researchers worldwide through the USDA's Germplasm Resources Information Network (GRIN) system.