Farmers organisations across the country including the Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM), an umbrella organisation of various farmers’ organisations, has asked the Centre to withdraw the draft Seeds Bill forthwith stating that it surrenders seed sovereignty of India and will affect farmers directly. The All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS), the CPI-M’s farmer organisation has also issued a strong statement against the proposed law. Speaking to the media on November 19, in New Delhi, SKM leaders said they had also decided to launch a campaign for increasing share to the States from the divisive pool to end the alleged imbalance in distribution of revenues.
In its scathing critique, the AIKS has said that the Draft Seeds Bill 2025 is poised to increase the cost of cultivation by allowing corporates to indulge in unchecked pricing of seeds; besides the all-India farmers organisation said that bringing in this law is a move to corporatise India’s seed sector and concede seed sovereignty
Elaborating further, SKM leaders said the draft Seed Bill surrendered the seed sovereignty of India and it was aimed at predatory pricing by the corporate monopolies. They have asked that the Centre should withdraw the Bill. The SKM also warned against “conceding on harmful clauses” in the summit to be held in Lima, Peru from November 24 to 29 on the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA).
Federalism, Federal rights
The campaign pitch to be launched will be all-encompassing. The leaders said the SKM would launch a national campaign with the slogan of “Strong States for Strong India” to safeguard the federal rights of States demanding increase of State share in the divisive pool (including cess and surcharge) from the current 31% to 60%. The SKM would also demand that the Goods and Services Tax Act must be amended to reinstate taxation power of States. “Financial autonomy of the States is necessary to realise minimum support price and minimum wage through augmenting public investment to modernise agriculture, build agro-industries and share the surplus out of processing, value addition and trade on all crops, thus to end agrarian crisis, peasant suicides and distress migration,” the SKM said.
The leaders said November 26, 2025 marked the fifth year of the beginning of the farmers’ struggle on the Delhi borders. “Sacrificing the lives of 736 martyrs, the protracted struggle of 380 days forced the BJP-led NDA union government to repeal the three pro-corporate and anti-people farm laws. Though five years have passed, Prime Minister Narendra Modi just formed a committee, but yet to implement the written assurances on MSP at the rate of C2+50% (as per M.S. Swaminathan Committee report), debt relief and privatisation of electricity given to SKM on December 9, 2021,” they said. The SKM would organise meetings, rallies and conventions to support its demands on November 26.
The All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS) in its condemnation of the proposed law has termed it “anti-farmer and part of the larger political project of the RSS-BJP to dispossess the small farmers and surrender India’s seed sovereignty to a handful of multinational and domestic monopolies.”
AIKS has also pointed out in a statement issued by office bearers Ashok Dhawale and Vijoo Krishnan that the RSS-BJP-led NDA government is pushing this extremely pro-corporate bill at a time when the agrarian crisis is deepening in India. Several scientific studies have established that the increasing corporate control on agriculture would intensify the agrarian crisis and farm suicides. The draft Bill has the necessary ingredients to accelerate the squeezing and looting of Indian farmers. For instance, this law would create a conducive atmosphere for monopolies to indulge in an unchecked pricing of seeds.
Besides, expanding its criticism further the AIKS ha stated that any new legislation regarding seeds — such as the draft Seeds Bill 2025 — must actively complement, not conflict with, the progressive legal safeguards already established under the PPVFR (Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers Right) Act 2001, and India’s international commitments under the CBD (Convention on Biological Diversity) and the ITPGRFA (International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture). These national and international commitments collectively uphold national sovereignty over genetic resources and protect indigenous varieties. They thus recognize 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 heavily centralised (and corporatized) regulatory system that risks weakening farmer-centred protection and diluting India’s legal architecture for biodiversity conservation and farmers’ rights. The draft appears to favour market control and stringent formalization of seed systems, potentially marginalizing indigenous varieties, public institutions and national/international seed networks. To be precise, the new draft of the Seeds Bill 2025 deviates India’s regulatory architecture on seeds substantially away from the provisions of the PPVFR Act 2001 and actively shifts the balance in the seed sector in favour of big corporate players.
The weeks and months ahead are likely to see campaigns and agitations against this draft law build up nationally.
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