Even as a section of stakeholders are opposing some clauses in the draft Seeds Bill 2025, the government has said that the Bill protects the farmer’s rights in conformity with the Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers’ Rights (PPV&FR) Act, 2001, to grow, sow, save, exchange and sell farm-saved seeds.
In a written reply in the Lok Sabha earlier this week, Ramnath Thakur, Union Minister of State for Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare, said the provisions of the Bill are not applicable to the farmers and farmer’s varieties, including traditional varieties. The Bill protects the farmer’s rights in conformity with the PPV&FR Act, 2001 to grow, sow, save, exchange and sell farm-saved seeds. In addition, various provisions are available under the Biological Diversity Act, 2002, and the PPV&FR Act, 2001, to safeguard farmers, community seed growers, traditional and indigenous seed varieties, he said.
The Bill has provisions for compulsory registration of all varieties sold in the market, registration of seed producer, seed processing unit and dealer, registration of plant nurseries, regulation of seed sale prices under emergent situation, compulsory labelling of performance of seeds, mandatory on boarding on SATHI (Seed Traceability, Authentication and Holistic Inventory) portal, etc., to ensure the quality of seeds following nationally determined standards supplied to the farmers.
