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New Delhi, Nov 13 (IANS) The Department of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare has invited comments from stakeholders on the new draft Seed Bill, 2025, which aims to ensure quality seeds, protect farmers’ rights and promote ease of doing business.
The draft Seed Bill, 2025 seeks to regulate the quality of seeds and planting material available in the market, ensure farmers have access to high quality seeds at affordable rates, curb the sale of counterfeit and poor quality seeds, protect farmers from losses, promote innovation and access to global varieties, liberalize seed imports and protect farmers’ rights, ensure transparency and accountability in seed supply chains.
On the enforcement side, the draft Bill proposes to decriminalize minor offences, thereby promoting ease of doing business and reducing compliance burden, while retaining strong provisions to effectively punish serious violations.
The proposed law aims to replace the existing Seed Act, 1966 and Seed (Control) Order, 1983.
As part of the pre-legislative consultation process, the draft Seed Bill, 2025 and the prescribed feedback format are available on the official website of the Ministry at https://agriwelfare.gov.in.
All stakeholders and members of the public are invited to submit their comments and suggestions on the draft Bill and its provisions. Feedback can be sent by email to jsseeds-agri[at]Government[dot]In.
Submissions can be made in MS Word or PDF format as soon as possible, before December 11, 2025.
The Ministry has laid great emphasis on providing improved seeds to farmers to increase crop production and income.
Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh inaugurated a new state-of-the-art vegetable and flower seed processing and packaging unit of the National Seed Corporation (NSC) at the Pusa Institute here on October 27 this year, and also virtually inaugurated five NSC seed processing plants located at Bareilly, Dharwad, Hassan, Suratgarh and Raichur.
The vegetable seed processing plant at Beej Bhawan in Pusa campus has a processing capacity of 1 tonne per hour, while the other five NSC plants have a capacity of 4 tonne per hour. These facilities are equipped with advanced technologies to ensure availability of high quality seeds to farmers and enhance the quality of seed production across the country.
During the programme, Chouhan also launched the ‘Seed Management 2.0’ system and an online seed booking platform for farmers. Through this platform, farmers will now be able to book their seed requirements online, ensuring greater transparency and accessibility. He stressed that quality seeds should reach the small and marginal farmers to increase their income.
–IANS
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