- The draft Seeds Bill, 2025, is the latest effort to replace the six-decade-old Seeds Act of 1966.
- While the new bill includes provisions for improving quality and transparency in seed production, critics argue that it is not farmer-centric and favours seed companies.
- Seed industry leaders call this bill futuristic, but critics contend that the bill is excessively centralised, undermining the authority of state governments.
On November 12, 2025, the Union Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare (MoA&FW) announced the draft Seeds Bill, 2025, a proposed legislation for quality, sale and certification of seeds.
The bill seeks to “regulate the quality of seeds”, “curb the sale of spurious seeds”, and “liberalise import of seeds” while “protecting the rights of the farmers”, the agriculture ministry stated in a press release. Ajai Rana, Chairman of the Federation of Seed Industry of India (FSII), which represents multinational seed companies in the country, welcomed the draft bill, calling it “a timely and much-needed step toward modernising India’s seed regulatory framework.”
However, critics of the bill argue that it ultimately favours seed companies over farmers. They also argue that it is heavily centralised, undermining the authority of state governments.
Researchers and industry experts have long demanded reforms to the Seeds Act of 1966 to address changes in the commercial seed trade over the last six decades. Currently, the Seeds (Control) Order, 1983, under the Essential Commodities Act, helps circumvent the deficiencies of the ageing Seeds Act.
There have been prior attempts by both the United Progressive Alliance and National Democratic Alliance governments to pass new legislation to regulate commercial seed trade in the country in 2004 and 2019, respectively.
New provisions of the bill
One of the main new provisions in the bill is the mandatory printing of QR codes or labels on seed packets, which discloses information about seed health, expected seed performance, and producer certification. It can be generated through the Centralised Seed Traceability Portal, a central government entity for tracking seed production and distribution. “If the system functions properly, it can improve seed quality control in the country,” said Malavika Dadlani, the former Joint Director (Research) at the ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi.
Dadlani also welcomed the “pro-farmer” provision for conducting evaluation trials to assess the Value for Cultivation and Use (VCU) of seed varieties. “Varietal traits and expected performance must be tested by accredited centres and disclosed to farmers,” she said.
However, Kavitha Kuruganti, founder of ASHA-Kisan Swaraj, a volunteer-driven network of farmers, argues that there is a consolidation effort for large seed companies within the bill. She points to the proposed Central Accreditation System, which would allow multinational seed companies to operate across states once accredited by the central government, thereby reducing checks for the “ease of business”. “I wouldn’t hesitate to say that this provision hasn’t emerged from the law ministry and has come from one of the seed industry bodies,” she added, about the ‘ease of business’ provision.
Erosion of state authority
The revised seed institutional architecture as per the draft Seeds Bill, 2025, proposes a 27-member Central Seed Committee (CSC) and a 15-member State Seed Committee (SSC) for each state government. While the 1966 Act provided for 22 state members in the CSC, the new bill proposes only five.
The proposed composition of the CSC is imbalanced, according to Dadlani. “Ideally, each state should have representation; if not, at least three member states from each geographic zone must be included by rotation, keeping the agricultural areas and crops in consideration,” she said. It is crucial to bring decision-making down to the appropriate level, Kuruganti adds.
“What is happening right now in Indian agriculture, not just in the sphere of seeds, almost all decisions are being taken by the union government,” Kuruganti said. “But when farmers are in a crisis, the first government to bear the brunt of any protests or resistance or even having to provide monetary compensation, is the state government.”
The new bill proposes seed price regulation during emergencies, but again, the onus lies with the union government. “The opinion of states should be sought in the matters of regulating seed prices,” Dadlani said.
The increasing seed prices, particularly for vegetables and certain high-value crops, have put pressure on farmers, says Kuruganti. “Seed prices must be regulated outside of emergencies so that we can reduce the cost of cultivation for farmers and keep it reasonable,” she added.
The unregulated seed prices are very apparent in the industry’s growth over the last few decades, Kuruganti shared. “The value of the seed industry has grown from about ₹4,000 crores two decades ago to ₹60-70,000 crores,” she said. The market share of the formal seed sector has remained the same during this period. According to a recent pan-India study, the overall contribution of formal seed sector has increased from 45% to 54% from 2016 to 2018.
“When it is clear that somebody else is profiteering at the expense of farmers, any new statute should think about regulating prices,” Kuruganti said. It will also force the regulator to develop a formula to set the price range, thereby bringing transparency to the costs incurred by seed companies during seed production, including the payments to contract seed multiplying farmers. “It will naturally shed light on the exploitation of seed multiplying farmers in the country,” she said.
Discrepancies with an existing Act
The Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers’ Rights (PPV&FR) Act, 2001, is one of the foundational seed-related legislations in the country. It is a statutory framework India crafted to protect farmers’ intellectual property rights when it became a founding member of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) in 1995.
According to the draft Seeds Bill, 2025, it shall apply to every seed dealer, distributor, and producer who is not a farmer. The legislation will not restrict the right of the farmer “to grow, sow, re-sow, save, use, exchange, share or sell his farm seeds of any kind or variety registered under this Act.”
However, the definition of ‘farmer’ in the new bill differs from the PPV&FR Act. In the draft Seeds Bill of 2025, a farmer is defined as “any person who (i) cultivates crops by cultivating the land himself; or (ii) cultivates crops by directly supervising the cultivation of land through any other person; or (iii) conserves and preserves, severally or jointly, with any other person any wild species or traditional varieties and adds value to such wild species or traditional varieties through selection and identification of their useful properties.”
Kuruganti argues that the definition should be presented verbatim from the PPV&FR Act, where it explicitly covers different farmer-producer organisations and cooperatives. “The definition of farmer in the singular (in the new bill) leads to problems where community institutions, including Self-Help Groups (SHGs), farmers’ cooperatives, and community seed banks are in danger of being criminalised in this act,” she said.
“Farmer producer organisations are registered under the Companies Act that sell seeds keeping a profit margin; it is justified that they must do so under a brand name and [that they are regulated],” Dadlani shared.
Also, the closer the seed producer and the seed consumer are, the lesser are the chances of quality compromise, Kuruganti added.
Punishment and compensation provisions
The new bill introduces graded penalties, with punishment for trivial, minor, and major offences such as the sale of non-registered seeds, ranging from a written notice to a fine of ₹30 lakhs (₹3 million) and the cancellation of registration.
“Apart from hiking penalties, it may be more pertinent that the exact quantum of punishment be decided based on the merit of each case and be adjudged by an authorised person/ panel, as is done in a court of law,” Dadlani said.
Kuruganti also proposes an adjudication committee, including farmer representatives, to take cognisance of offences and dispense justice.
Currently, the legislation lacks provisions for compensation. A seed compensation fund set up by both the central and state governments would help alleviate losses incurred by farmers, according to Kuruganti. “Such a fund could also receive the penalties collected for offences under the Act, which could then provide compensation to farmers,” she said.
What is next for the Bill?
According to Dadlani, “Its [The Seeds Bill] implementation will ensure quality seeds of the best varieties available to farmers at competitive prices, and will discourage unscrupulous and fly-by-night seed companies,” she said.
However, Kuruganti considers the proposed statutory framework to be inadequate to protect farmers’ interests. “We will only support a statute that is farmer-centric, upholds the constitutional authority of state governments, and supports community seed systems that have been the backbone of India’s food security and sovereignty over the last seven to eight decades,” she added.
Meanwhile seed industry leaders believe that the Seeds Bill, 2025, deserves to be passed. “It is futuristic, inclusive, may create ease of doing business by reducing the burden of compliance, while safeguarding the interest of farmers and researchers’ rights, focusing on quality seeds, rationalising the offences and penalties, and harmonising the seed regulatory system across the country,” said R K Tripathi, Director at the National Seed Association of India.
The public feedback period for the bill came to a close on December 11, 2025. The bill is expected to be introduced to the parliament for cabinet approval in early 2026.
Read more: India’s long search for a fair seed law remains unfinished [Commentary]
Banner image: A woman sorts through seeds in a winnowing basket. Image by Dipak Rathwa via Pexels (CC0).
Credits
