Centre Seeks Public Feedback on Draft Seeds Bill, 2025 to Safeguard Farmers and Ensure Seed Quality

New Delhi— The **Department of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare** has invited comments and suggestions from stakeholders and the public on the **draft Seeds Bill, 2025**, aimed at ensuring quality seeds, protecting farmers’ rights, and promoting ease of doing business in the agriculture sector.

The **draft Seeds Bill, 2025** seeks to regulate the quality of seeds and planting materials in the market, guarantee farmers access to high-quality seeds at affordable prices, and curb the sale of **spurious or substandard seeds**. It also focuses on protecting farmers from potential losses, liberalising seed imports to foster innovation and access to global varieties, and strengthening **transparency and accountability** across seed supply chains.

To streamline enforcement, the draft Bill proposes to **decriminalise minor offences**, thereby enhancing ease of doing business and reducing the compliance burden for seed companies, while retaining stringent penalties for **serious violations**.

The proposed legislation will replace the **Seeds Act, 1966** and the **Seeds (Control) Order, 1983**, modernising India’s seed regulation framework.

As part of the **pre-legislative consultation process**, the draft Bill and the prescribed feedback format are available on the Ministry’s official website — [https://agriwelfare.gov.in](https://agriwelfare.gov.in). Stakeholders can send their inputs via email to **jsseeds-agri[at]gov[dot]in** in **MS Word or PDF format** by **December 11, 2025**.

The government has been giving a major push to ensure the availability of **improved and high-yielding seed varieties** to farmers, which play a critical role in increasing productivity and income levels.

Recently, on **October 27**, **Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan** inaugurated a **state-of-the-art vegetable and flower seed processing and packaging unit** of the **National Seeds Corporation (NSC)** at **Pusa Institute**, New Delhi. He also virtually inaugurated five NSC seed processing plants located in **Bareilly, Dharwad, Hassan, Suratgarh, and Raichur**.

The new vegetable seed processing plant at **Beej Bhawan, Pusa**, has a processing capacity of **1 tonne per hour**, while the other five NSC facilities each have a capacity of **4 tonnes per hour**. These plants are equipped with **advanced technologies** to enhance seed quality and production efficiency nationwide.

During the launch event, Chouhan also unveiled the **‘Seed Management 2.0’ system** and an **online seed booking platform** for farmers. The digital platform enables farmers to **book seeds online**, ensuring greater transparency, efficiency, and accessibility in the seed distribution system.

The Minister emphasised that **high-quality seeds must reach small and marginal farmers** to help improve crop yields and boost rural incomes.

With inputs from IANS