SYLLABUS
GS-2: Government Policies and Interventions for Development in various sectors and Issues arising out of their Design and Implementation.
GS-3: E-technology in the aid of farmers; Issues of and Food Security.
Context: Recently, the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare released the draft of the Seeds Bill 2025.
More on the News
- The proposed legislation intends to replace the existing Seeds Act, 1966 and the Seeds (Control) Order, 1983.
- The Agriculture Ministry highlighted that the new bill seeks to safeguard farmer rights, ensure transparency and accountability in seed supply chains.
- The new draft bill comes after two failed attempts in the past by the United Progressive Alliance and National Democratic Alliance governments in 2004 and 2019.
Key Features of the Bill
- Purpose and Scope:
- Aims to regulate the quality of seeds and planting materials available in the market.
- Ensures farmers’ access to high-quality seeds at affordable rates.
- Seeks to prevent the sale of spurious, substandard or non-registered seeds.
- Promotes innovation by liberalising seed imports and enabling access to global varieties.
- Enhances transparency and accountability in seed supply chains, safeguarding farmers’ rights.
- Defines the constitution and roles of Central and State seeds committees.
- Registration and Regulation:
- All seed dealers and distributors must obtain a registration certificate from the State government before selling, storing, importing, exporting, or supplying seeds.
- Seed sales must comply with national standards on germination, genetic and physical purity, traits, and seed health, as prescribed under the Indian Minimum Seed Certification Standards.
- Existing varieties notified under Section 5 of the Seeds Act, 1966, will be deemed registered under the new legislation.
- It emphasises traceability, vests price control with the Central Government, and removes ICAR and SAUs from their earlier authority to approve variety trials.
- Provisions on Seed Imports: The Central Government may permit the import of unregistered seed varieties for research and trial purposes through notification, subject to specified quantities and conditions.
- Offences and Penalties: It proposes to decriminalise minor offences, thereby promoting ‘Ease of Doing Business’ and reducing compliance burden.
- Major offences include selling spurious or unregistered seeds and operating without mandatory registration.
- Penalties for major violations include fines up to ₹30 lakh and imprisonment for up to three years.
Positive Aspects of the Bill
- Modernising India’s seed regulatory framework: It introduces mandatory registration of all seed varieties, ensuring only verified and quality-controlled seeds enter the market.
- Enhanced Traceability and Market Discipline: It ensures improved traceability of seeds throughout the supply chain, enabling quick action in cases of quality failure.
- Easier Access to Diverse Varieties: It deems previously notified varieties as registered, ensuring continuity and quick availability of existing seeds.
- Ease of Doing Business: It proposes to decriminalise minor offences, promoting business culture and reducing compliance burden, while maintaining strong provisions to penalise serious violations effectively.
Challenges Associated with the Bill
- Limited Farmer Safeguards: While the Bill emphasises variety registration, it provides limited clarity on protecting farmers’ traditional practices of seed saving and exchange.
- Concentration of Regulatory Authority: The Bill centralises key powers—including price control, import approvals, and dispute resolution—potentially reducing the regulatory autonomy of state governments.
- Insufficient Biosafety Safeguards: The Bill offers limited biosafety safeguards, particularly regarding transgenic or GM seeds, as it does not integrate Environment Protection Act (EPA)-based or Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee (GEAC)-mandated checks within the seed regulatory framework.
- Gaps in Farmer Compensation Mechanisms: Although the Bill allows price regulation in “emergent situations,” it remains silent on compensation frameworks for farmers when seeds underperform in the field.
Way Forward
- Strengthen Farmer Safeguards: The Act needs to explicitly recognise and protect farmers’ traditional rights to save, use, exchange, and sell farm-saved seeds.
- Create a Clear Liability and Compensation Framework: The accountability across the seed value chain should be defined properly to avoid ambiguity when seeds fail.
- Introduce Strong Biosafety and Regulatory Checks: It is needed to integrate safeguards from the Environment Protection Act, GEAC guidelines, and other biosafety frameworks like the Cartagena Protocol to regulate transgenic or genetically modified seeds.
- Reinstate Scientific Oversight: Restore a defined role for ICAR and State Agricultural Universities in variety testing, regional suitability assessments, and scientific evaluation.