Seed, pesticide laws nearly ready; likely to be tabled in next Parliament session: Chouhan

Draft legislation to replace the Seeds Act, 1966 and the Insecticides Act, 1968 is near finalisation and is expected to be tabled in the next Parliament sess...

What Happened

Draft legislation to replace the Seeds Act, 1966 and the Insecticides Act, 1968 is near finalisation and is expected to be tabled in the next Parliament session.
The development was announced at a national agriculture conference attended by state Agriculture Ministers, with the Union Agriculture Ministry indicating that consultation with states has been substantively completed.
The proposed Bills aim to introduce mandatory digital traceability, strengthen quality certification frameworks, and impose stricter penalties for spurious seeds and pesticides.
India has attempted to rewrite the Seeds Act four times in the past two decades — in 2004, 2010, 2019, and most recently in 2025 — making this one of the longest-pending legislative reforms in the agriculture sector.
The new pesticide framework, built on the draft Pesticide Management Bill 2025, will replace both the Insecticides Act, 1968 and the Insecticides Rules, 1971.

Static Topic Bridges

The Seeds Act, 1966: Background and Limitations

The Seeds Act, 1966 (Act No. 54 of 1966), enacted on December 29, 1966, established the foundational legal framework for seed quality regulation in India. Its primary objective was to make good-quality seeds available to cultivators by creating systems for variety notification, seed certification, and quality standards. The Act established the Central Seed Committee to advise the government, provided for Central and State Seed Laboratories, and created the role of Seed Inspectors and Seed Analysts. However, the Act predates modern plant biotechnology, the commercial seed industry, and digital supply chains, rendering it ill-suited to current agricultural realities.

The Act covers seeds of food crops, oilseed crops, cotton, cattle fodder, and vegetative propagating material.
Under the Act, the Central Government can "notify" specific varieties, making them subject to mandatory certification and labelling requirements.
Penalties under the 1966 Act are widely considered outdated and inadequate to deter large-scale adulteration.
Over two decades, reforming this Act has been a recurring agenda item — failed attempts in 2004, 2010, and 2019 reflect deep disagreements over issues such as farmer seed rights and intellectual property for private seed companies.

Connection to this news: The upcoming Bill is designed to address exactly these gaps — compulsory digital traceability, modernised certification, and stricter penalties — that the 1966 Act failed to provide.

The Insecticides Act, 1968 and the Need for a Pesticide Management Framework

The Insecticides Act, 1968 is the primary legislation governing the manufacture, sale, import, export, storage, distribution, and use of pesticides (termed "insecticides" in the Act). Administered by the Central Insecticides Board and Registration Committee (CIBRC) under the Ministry of Agriculture, the Act requires all pesticides to be registered before commercial use. However, the 1968 framework has been criticised for weak monitoring mechanisms, inadequate provisions for environmental impact assessment, absence of digital traceability, and slow action against counterfeit products.

The CIBRC is the apex regulatory authority for pesticide registration under the 1968 Act.
The proposed Pesticide Management Bill 2025 introduces scientific criteria for registration including environmental impact, toxicity profiles, residue behaviour, human exposure risk, and climate-adaptive performance.
A national pesticide registry — a central digital database tracing a pesticide through its entire lifecycle from manufacture to disposal — is a key feature of the proposed framework.
Every pesticide must be digitally registered under the new framework, enabling end-to-end supply chain accountability.

Connection to this news: The Insecticides Act replacement is being framed as the legislative foundation for a digital-first, science-driven pesticide governance system suited to a 21st-century agricultural economy.

Centre–State Relations in Agriculture: The Seventh Schedule and Concurrent List

Agriculture is a State subject under Entry 14 of List II (State List) of the Seventh Schedule of the Constitution. However, Parliament can legislate on agriculture-related matters that have an inter-state dimension or involve quality standards under the Concurrent List (List III). The Seeds Act and the Insecticides Act were both passed by Parliament under this broader legislative competence. The consultation process with state Agriculture Ministers prior to introducing such Bills reflects the constitutional design that mandates cooperative federalism in agriculture governance.

Entry 14, List II (State List): Agriculture, including agricultural education and research, protection against pests and prevention of plant diseases.
Entry 33, List III (Concurrent List): Production, supply and distribution of products of industries, which enables Parliament to legislate on input quality including seeds and pesticides.
Any central law on agriculture-related subjects that touches on state jurisdiction must navigate potential conflicts under Article 254 (inconsistency between central and state laws — central law prevails in the Concurrent List).
The conference with state Agriculture Ministers is consistent with the practice of cooperative federalism before introducing legislation with significant inter-state implications.

Connection to this news: The announcement at a conference of state ministers signals that the legislative drafting has already gone through the cooperative consultation phase required before a Bill with Concurrent List implications is introduced in Parliament.

Farmers' Rights and Intellectual Property in Seed Laws

The Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers' Rights Act, 2001 (PPV&FR Act) currently governs plant variety registration and farmers' rights in India, operating alongside the Seeds Act. The PPV&FR Act grants "Farmers' Rights," including the right to save, use, sow, resow, exchange, share, or sell farm-saved seed. Any new Seed Bill must align with this framework and with India's obligations under the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA), which India ratified.

The PPV&FR Act, 2001 is administered by the Plant Varieties Protection and Farmers' Rights Authority.
India is a signatory to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and the Nagoya Protocol on Access and Benefit Sharing, which have implications for seed genetic resource governance.
Previous drafts of the Seed Bill failed partly because of concerns that mandatory certification of farmer-saved seed would restrict traditional seed-sharing practices.
The new draft is expected to balance intellectual property protection for private seed companies with explicit carve-outs for farmers' traditional seed rights.

Connection to this news: The long legislative history of the Seed Bill reflects this fundamental tension, and any final legislation will be scrutinised for how it resolves the farmer rights vs. commercial IP debate.

Key Facts & Data

Seeds Act, 1966: Enacted December 29, 1966; came into force 1968–69.
Insecticides Act, 1968: Primary pesticide regulation statute; administered by CIBRC.
India has attempted to replace the Seeds Act four times: 2004, 2010, 2019, 2025.
The Pesticide Management Bill 2025 proposes a national pesticide digital registry covering the entire product lifecycle.
Agriculture is a State List subject (Entry 14, List II, Seventh Schedule), but input quality standards fall partly under the Concurrent List.
PPV&FR Act, 2001 governs farmers' seed rights alongside the Seeds Act, 1966.
Both Bills, once introduced, are expected to be referred to a Parliamentary Standing Committee for scrutiny before passage.