AIKS Warns: Draft Seeds Bill 2025 Hands Farmers’ Seeds to Corporates

New Delhi: Calling for a nationwide mobilisation against the proposed Seeds Bill, All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS) National President Ashok Dhawale said, “This draft Bill is anti-national, anti-peasant and anti-people. It is a major intervention aimed at dispossessing small farmers and surrendering India’s seed sovereignty to corporate monopolies,” condemning the Union Government’s draft Seeds Bill 2025.

AIKS, India’s largest farmers union has sharply criticised the Union Government’s draft Seeds Bill 2025, saying that the proposed legislation would push India’s seed sector further into corporate hands and undermine farmers’ rights.

In a statement, AIKS said the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS)-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)–led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government is advancing a “pro-corporate” agenda at a time when the agrarian crisis continues to deepen across the country. The AIKS added that allowing greater corporate influence in the seed market could lead to predatory pricing and sharply increase the overall cost of cultivation for farmers.

AIKS pointed out that several scientific studies have linked expanding corporate control in agriculture to worsening economic distress among farmers. The farmer’s union further warned that the draft Bill “has the necessary ingredients to accelerate the squeezing and looting of the peasantry” by enabling monopolies to dominate the seed market.

The Bill could dilute existing frameworks that protect farmers’ rights AIKS warned. The current PPVFR (Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers’ Rights) Act, 2001, along with India’s commitments under international agreements such as the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA), recognises farmers as breeders, conservers, and custodians of biodiversity. These frameworks guarantee farmers the right to save, use, exchange, and sell seeds.

However, the draft Seeds Bill 2025 introduces a heavily centralised and corporatised regulatory system that may weaken these protections. The farmers union argues that the Bill could marginalise indigenous varieties, public research institutions, and community seed networks, shifting the balance of power toward large domestic and multinational corporations.

The Seeds Bill 2025 is expected to undergo further discussions, with farmer organisations preparing to intensify their opposition in the coming weeks.