New Delhi: The All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS) strongly condemns the anti-farmer and pro-corporate Draft Seeds Bill 2025 introduced by the RSS-BJP-led NDA Government. The Bill represents yet another attempt within the broader political agenda to dispossess small and marginal farmers while surrendering India’s seed sovereignty to a handful of domestic and multinational corporate monopolies.
AIKS notes that the government is pushing this highly pro-corporate legislation at a time when India’s agrarian crisis is worsening. Multiple scientific studies have shown that increasing corporate control over agriculture further aggravates rural distress and leads to higher rates of farm suicides. The draft Bill contains clear provisions that would accelerate the squeezing of the peasantry. Notably, it paves the way for monopolies to indulge in predatory pricing of seeds, thereby increasing the cost of cultivation and deepening farmers’ vulnerability.
AIKS firmly believes that any new legislation related to seeds — including the Draft Seeds Bill 2025 — must reinforce, not conflict with, the progressive legal safeguards already enshrined under:
• The PPVFR Act, 2001 (Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers’ Rights),
• India’s commitments under the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), and
• The International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA).
These national and international frameworks collectively uphold India’s sovereignty over its genetic resources. They recognise farmers as breeders, conservers, and rightful custodians of biodiversity, with guaranteed rights to save, use, exchange, and sell seeds.
In contrast, the Draft Seeds Bill 2025 introduces a highly centralised and corporatised regulatory regime that threatens to dilute farmer-centric protections, weaken biodiversity safeguards and marginalise indigenous seed varieties. The draft appears designed to formalise and commercialise seed systems in ways that favour large corporations, sidelining public institutions, community seed networks and India’s rich traditional seed heritage.
In essence, the new draft significantly shifts India’s seed regulatory framework away from the principles of the PPVFR Act, 2001, and tilts the balance of power decisively toward corporate seed players, thereby jeopardising farmers’ rights and national seed sovereignty.
AIKS calls upon the Indian peasantry and all democratic forces to unite and launch a massive struggle against this anti-national, anti-peasant and anti-people Bill. This struggle is essential for protecting farmers’ rights, safeguarding biodiversity, and ensuring the survival and dignity of India’s agricultural community.
