A third-time lucky seed bill?

After having failed to become a law in 2004 and 2019, a new seed bill may be introduced in Parliament in the second leg of the ongoing Budget session. As usual, it has reignited fresh controversies. The Government insists that it will ensure access to cheap but high-quality seeds, and protect farmers’ losses. The industry feels that it will replace an outdated and ill-equipped law (1966). Farm unions counter that the proposed Act will centralise political control, empower firms, and diminish the growers’ traditional rights and practices.

According to the agriculture ministry, the new law will regulate the quality of seeds, curb the sale of spurious and poor-quality seeds, liberalise imports to allow global varieties, safeguard the rights of the farmers, and ensure transparency and accountability in supply chains. In addition, it will decriminalise minor offences to promote ease-of-doing-business, reduce compliance burden, yet maintain clauses to penalise the serious violations. The industry welcomed the draft bill, which was available for public feedback in November 2025, and claimed that it could deal with the new scientific and commercial realities.

“The Draft Seeds Bill, 2025, is a timely, and much-needed step toward modernising India’s seed regulatory framework. FSII (Federation of Seed Industry of India) welcomes the consultative approach, as replacing the Seeds Act, 1966, and the Seeds (Control) Order, 1983, has been long pending,” said Ajai Rana, chairman, FSII. “An initial reading of the draft indicates the introduction of a recognition system for research-based companies, and enhanced ease of doing business. These measures will help streamline the sector while ensuring strong safeguards against serious violations,” he added.

However, the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM), and other farmer entities criticised the draft, and continue to stick to their guns. They allege that it threatens seed sovereignty, and undermines the nation’s food security. “We are committed to fight. If the bill is passed by Parliament, it will be against the will of the farmers, and there will be a sustainable struggle against it. We will consider boycotting the multinationals, and their seeds,” warned SKM leader P Krishnaprasad. The farmers point out several inconsistencies.

For example, the draft had a provision to create a Central Seed Committee to “controls all aspects of seeds, from production to testing, without representation from all the states.” On an overall basis, it gives more power to the Centre, empowers corporations, and weakens the farmers’ traditional autonomy. The small seed producers will need to register on par with the large seed firms, which will place the former at level with the powerful latter group. A clause in the seed rules (1983) banned black marketing, which will be upturned under the new law.

Since agriculture is a states’ subject as per the Constitution, the draft does envisage both central and states’ seed committees. The one in New Delhi will recommend standards for minimum germination levels, genetic and physical purity, traits and seed health norms, and additional quality parameters. The state ones will advise on the registration of producers, dealers, nurseries, and processing units. SKM had raised ten questions, which include one on the insistence on QR code facility, without an assurance of Internet access. Most of the small producers reside in remote areas with limited Internet.

However, the Government insists that these concerns were addressed. In a written statement in Rajya Sabha on February 6, 2026, the minister of state for agriculture, Ramnath Thakur, revealed that “extensive consultations have been held with the farmers’ groups, seed experts, industry associations, and State Governments, including the Government of Punjab.” He mentioned that the draft bill was “placed in the public domain as part of the pre-legislative consultation process, and over 14,000 suggestions, comments, and observations have been received and examined.” He assured that they were considered “as prescribed to be followed for the finalisation of the Bill.”

But even the RSS-affiliated Bharatiya Kisan Sangh (BKS) red-flagged the draft, and is currently holding a meeting in Telangana to discuss it, as well as other farm-related issues like the India-US bilateral trade agreement. According to some members of the BKS, it has identified 20 contentious points, which will be passed on to the Government after discussing them at the Telangana meeting. Other experts point out that the seed bill will undermine other laws like the National Biodiversity Act (2002), and Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers’ Right Act (2001). Compulsory registration can dilute public-interest mandates.

An insistence on value for cultivation and use may be best to assess performance, but veers towards “uniform, high-input, corporate-bred hybrids.” This contradicts the biodiversity law, which seeks conservation and sustainable use of the country’s genetic diversity. Despite required legal clearances for genetically-modified seeds, the draft merely categorises them as “spurious,” and omits the mandatory clearance. “This regulatory blind spot downplays environmental and health risks by prioritising commercial penalties over adherence to biosafety standards,” states an analysis on social media.

The Government claims that the final bill may remove such anomalies, and there are clauses for compulsory registration of varieties; accreditation of certification agencies to ensure uniform standards; registration of seed producers, seed processing units, and dealers and distributors; registration of plant nurseries; regulation of seed sale prices under emergent situation; compulsory labelling of performance of seeds; and mandatory on-boarding on central traceability portal. The portal is a centralised system to trace and track production and distribution. “These measures are intended to ensure the quality of seeds supplied to the farmers,” explained minister Thakur.

“The provisions will ensure that quality seed reaches to farmers, especially small and marginal farmers, and result in increased production, higher income, and mitigation of risk associated with seeds,” added the minister in his reply to a question in the Lok Sabha. “The Bill explicitly safeguards the rights of farmers to grow, sow, save, exchange, and sell their farm-saved seeds of any registered varieties. Further, the proposed Act will not be applicable to the farmers, and exemptions have also been provided for traditional varieties and farmers’ varieties,” he added in the same written statement.

Contrary to the fears, the draft does not create or confer intellectual property rights over the seeds. Issues relating to IPR are separately governed under the Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers’ Rights Act. The seed bill focuses on quality and regulation, and does not facilitate corporate control over the seeds. Thus, the draft seed bill, or its final version, may not contradict or dilute the existing laws that protect the farmers. It is an addition, not a substitution. One will not supersede the others, as critics wrongly maintain.

(The author has more than three decades of experience across print, TV, and digital media); views are personal