The Crossbill News Desk
A nationwide confrontation is brewing over the draft Seeds Bill 2025, with the Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM) launching an all-India protest against what it describes as a dangerous legislative overhaul that threatens federal powers, food security and seed sovereignty.
The MoAFW notified the draft Bill on November 12 and invited public comments until December 11, proposing to replace the Seeds Act, 1966 with a centralised regulatory structure and expanded oversight mechanisms.
In a statement issued on Sunday (December 7), SKM denounced the proposed law as a tool to cement multinational corporate control over India’s seed sector and demanded its “immediate withdrawal.” The farmers’ platform has called upon cultivators in every village to burn copies of the Bill on December 8, warning that the legislation mirrors the intentions of the earlier Contract Farming law and would “change cropping patterns to serve market interests of Corporations,” with no assurance of timely access to affordable, quality seeds.
According to SKM, the Draft Bill introduces an over-centralised licensing regime that sidelines farmer-led and indigenous seed systems while diluting the role of state governments.
One of the most contentious features is Section 17(8), which establishes a Central Accreditation System under which once companies are accredited, they are automatically registered in every state. SKM argues that this undermines federal principles and gives private companies “an undue fast-track,” while public institutions receive no similar advantages.
The organisation is also alarmed by provisions that ease entry for foreign seed companies. By permitting import of unregistered varieties for trials and recognising overseas VCU testing centres, the Bill “significantly lowers regulatory barriers” for multinationals, SKM said. These pathways, it warned, would allow foreign firms to introduce germplasm into India without Indian-supervised trials, bypassing the National Biodiversity Authority and domestic VCU systems. As a result, imported varieties could be marketed faster and at lower cost than those developed by Indian public-sector breeders.
The mandatory introduction of digital traceability tools such as QR codes and exhaustive labelling norms is another flashpoint. SKM argues that only large companies with substantial digital infrastructure will be able to meet these requirements, placing farmers’ collectives and informal seed networks at a crippling disadvantage and ultimately eroding seed sovereignty.
SKM further criticised provisions related to seed pricing, which restrict government intervention to narrowly defined “emergent situations.”
The group said the clauses are so vaguely worded that they effectively allow private seed companies to continue predatory pricing practices, worsening farmers’ input costs and deepening rural distress.
Concerns also extend to the horticulture sector. With compulsory registration proposed for all planting materials—including grafts, tubers, bulbs, cuttings and tissue culture plants—SKM noted that India’s public horticulture system lacks adequate testing, reference labs and authentication infrastructure.
Private firms, already dominant, would be best positioned to comply and capture even more market share, while exotic germplasm continues to enter through unregulated channels.
The farmers’ body linked the Bill’s implications to India’s position in global biodiversity negotiations under the CBD and ITPGRFA. With India holding major agri-genetic wealth, SKM warned that weakening sovereign oversight through legislation that “facilitates unregulated corporate access” would undermine national interests and the rights of farming communities who are custodians of genetic resources.
Calling the Bill “anti-farmer” and “pro-corporate,” SKM accused the BJP-RSS of allowing multinational giants such as Bayer, BASF, Syngenta, Advanta India, Corteva and Mahyco to dominate the domestic seed sector. If implemented, it warned, the law would enable corporate control over agricultural production and “destroy peasant agriculture.”
The group has urged farmers nationwide to resist the proposed legislation by joining a symbolic protest on December 8.
“SKM calls upon farmers across India to rally against this regressive legislative reform aimed at corporatisation of the seed sector allowing large-scale profiteering on Indian biodiversity by the MNCs and eroding the food security and seed sovereignty of the country,” the statement said.
The MoAFW notified the draft Bill on November 12 and invited public comments until December 11, proposing to replace the Seeds Act, 1966 with a centralised regulatory structure and expanded oversight mechanisms.
In a statement issued on Sunday (December 7), SKM denounced the proposed law as a tool to cement multinational corporate control over India’s seed sector and demanded its “immediate withdrawal.” The farmers’ platform has called upon cultivators in every village to burn copies of the Bill on December 8, warning that the legislation mirrors the intentions of the earlier Contract Farming law and would “change cropping patterns to serve market interests of Corporations,” with no assurance of timely access to affordable, quality seeds.
According to SKM, the Draft Bill introduces an over-centralised licensing regime that sidelines farmer-led and indigenous seed systems while diluting the role of state governments.
One of the most contentious features is Section 17(8), which establishes a Central Accreditation System under which once companies are accredited, they are automatically registered in every state. SKM argues that this undermines federal principles and gives private companies “an undue fast-track,” while public institutions receive no similar advantages.
The organisation is also alarmed by provisions that ease entry for foreign seed companies. By permitting import of unregistered varieties for trials and recognising overseas VCU testing centres, the Bill “significantly lowers regulatory barriers” for multinationals, SKM said. These pathways, it warned, would allow foreign firms to introduce germplasm into India without Indian-supervised trials, bypassing the National Biodiversity Authority and domestic VCU systems. As a result, imported varieties could be marketed faster and at lower cost than those developed by Indian public-sector breeders.
The mandatory introduction of digital traceability tools such as QR codes and exhaustive labelling norms is another flashpoint. SKM argues that only large companies with substantial digital infrastructure will be able to meet these requirements, placing farmers’ collectives and informal seed networks at a crippling disadvantage and ultimately eroding seed sovereignty.
SKM further criticised provisions related to seed pricing, which restrict government intervention to narrowly defined “emergent situations.”
The group said the clauses are so vaguely worded that they effectively allow private seed companies to continue predatory pricing practices, worsening farmers’ input costs and deepening rural distress.
Concerns also extend to the horticulture sector. With compulsory registration proposed for all planting materials—including grafts, tubers, bulbs, cuttings and tissue culture plants—SKM noted that India’s public horticulture system lacks adequate testing, reference labs and authentication infrastructure.
Private firms, already dominant, would be best positioned to comply and capture even more market share, while exotic germplasm continues to enter through unregulated channels.
The farmers’ body linked the Bill’s implications to India’s position in global biodiversity negotiations under the CBD and ITPGRFA. With India holding major agri-genetic wealth, SKM warned that weakening sovereign oversight through legislation that “facilitates unregulated corporate access” would undermine national interests and the rights of farming communities who are custodians of genetic resources.
Calling the Bill “anti-farmer” and “pro-corporate,” SKM accused the BJP-RSS of allowing multinational giants such as Bayer, BASF, Syngenta, Advanta India, Corteva and Mahyco to dominate the domestic seed sector. If implemented, it warned, the law would enable corporate control over agricultural production and “destroy peasant agriculture.”
The group has urged farmers nationwide to resist the proposed legislation by joining a symbolic protest on December 8.
“SKM calls upon farmers across India to rally against this regressive legislative reform aimed at corporatisation of the seed sector allowing large-scale profiteering on Indian biodiversity by the MNCs and eroding the food security and seed sovereignty of the country,” the statement said.
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