ICAMA was approved to be established in 1963 by the State Council of China, and later in 1978, it resumed its operation as bureau-director level body also by the State Council. Another plate indicating its role as the Secretariat of the Codex Committee on Pesticide Residues (CCPR) was added to ICAMA upon the approval of the State Commission Office for Public Sector Reform (SCOPSR) in 2006. ICAMA is in charge of, in accordance with the Regulation on Pesticide Administration and authorized by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, specific routine work of national pesticide registration, accreditation of qualified pesticide study efforts, monitoring risks of pesticide application, drafting policies and regulations concerning pesticide administration, Market oversight, international compliance, operational statistics of pesticide production and information technology advancement, as well as the routine affairs of the CCPR and two reviewing boards for national standards of pesticide residue and pesticide registration.

ICAMA consists of 13 divisions, including the General Office (also serving as the Personnel Division and the Office for CPC Committee), Planning and Finance Division, Registration Division, Quality Control Division, Efficacy Division, Residue Division, Health Division, Environment Division, Re-evaluation Division, upervision and Regulation Division, International Cooperation Division, Information Division, as well as CCPR Secretariat Office. There are 88 employees with the staff quotas, including 6 members of the leadership group (2 at bureau-director level and the other 4 at deputy-bureau-director level), 3 associate general agronomists, 26 at division-chief level (12 division chiefs and 14 deputy division chiefs). 83 percent of the total staff members have received their academic credentials above undergraduate among whom 16 are with doctor degrees, 31 with master degrees; 20 staff members are qualified for assuming positions as research fellows, 37 are qualified for associate professorship, accounting for 71 percent of the total; 37 are under the age of 45, accounting about a half of the total. ICAMA has established a National Center for Pesticide Quality Supervision and Inspection, which also serves as a national arbitral lab in the field of pesticide quality and residue. The lab covers an area of over 4000 square meters and is equipped with over 100 sets of instruments and apparatuses, for example, the gas chromatograph, liquid  hromatograph, gas chromatograph-mass spectrometer, liquid chromatograph-mass spectrometer.

Standing closely to the leadership team of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural affairs, ICAMA has endeavored to optimize the professional sector of registration and evaluation and to build a more professional team, introducing professional evaluation techniques and relevant technical standards framework for assessing chemicals, toxicology, residue, environment, and pharmacological efficacy, which would qualify ICAMA for conducting pesticide registration, evaluation, surveillance and evaluation on a broader scale and in a more systematical manner. ICAMA also work closely with international organizations like the FAO, offering training workshops for pesticide management officials and professionals from the developing countries, playing its due part for international exchanges and coordinated governance in the pesticide sector; it also establishes close ties with pesticide administrations from several dozens of countries and regions, helping domestic pesticide producers to export their products to some 182 overseas countries and regions, accounting for 60 percent of the world’s total pesticide trade. ICAMA has now emerged as a rising star in the international pesticide field.