AIKS says proposed Seed Amendment Bill is pro-corporate, undermines farmers’ rights and states’ powers
NEW DELHI — The All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS) has launched a scathing attack on the Modi government, accusing it of surrendering India’s seed sovereignty to multinational corporations under pressure from the United States and Western powers.
The farmer organisation’s pan-India platform, in a statement on Tuesday alleged that the proposed Seed Amendment Bill represents a dangerous shift towards corporatisation of agriculture, threatening national interests, federal principles, and farmers’ age-old rights over seeds.
Reacting strongly to Union Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan’s statement on January 16 defending the draft Bill, AIKS president Ashok Dhawale said the Modi government was attempting to ram through a deeply controversial legislation despite widespread opposition from farmers’ organisations and state governments. The minister had claimed that the proposed amendments were in farmers’ interest and indicated that the Bill could be tabled in the upcoming session of Parliament.
AIKS said such a move would amount to a brazen violation of democratic and parliamentary norms. “The Modi government is once again using its brute majority to push a regressive, pro-corporate agenda in total disregard of the views of farmers and other stakeholders,” the organisation said in a statement issued here.
The Left-affiliated farmers’ body pointed out that it had already submitted a detailed, clause-by-clause critique of the draft Seed Amendment Bill to the Agriculture Ministry within the stipulated deadline of December 11, 2025. In addition, the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM), the umbrella platform that led the historic farmers’ agitation against the three now-repealed farm laws, had also expressed outright opposition to the Bill. Copies of the draft legislation were burnt in protest at several places across the country, AIKS noted.
According to Jisan Sabha, the proposed amendments would jeopardise farmers’ inalienable rights over seed sovereignty and open up the strategic seed sector to indigenous and foreign private companies, including multinational corporations. “Opening the seed sector to MNCs is detrimental to national interests and will eventually place control of India’s food system in corporate hands,” the statement warned.
The organisation also flagged serious federal concerns, arguing that agriculture is a state subject under the Constitution. The proposed law, it said, would drastically curtail the role of state governments by centralising powers in a national-level body where only a handful of states would be represented, effectively sidelining the rest. AIKS described this as a direct infringement of states’ rights.
A key objection raised by AIKS relates to provisions allowing self-certification of seeds, including the acceptance of trial data generated in offshore countries with different land and climatic conditions. The farmers’ body argued that such clauses would dilute quality control and compromise the suitability of seeds for Indian agro-climatic conditions.
AIKS further said the Bill undermines the role of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) and public sector research institutions, paving the way for a private-sector monopoly over seeds. “This will make seeds more expensive, reduce farmers’ access, and erode public accountability,” it said.
Instead, AIKS has proposed strengthening the existing Seed Act by tightening quality control norms and introducing transparent price regulation mechanisms to ensure affordability and accessibility for farmers.
Warning the Centre against repeating the mistakes that led to the mass uprising against the three farm laws, AIKS urged the government to withdraw the Bill in its present form and initiate wide-ranging consultations. These should include farmers’ organisations, state governments, scientists, and civil society groups working in the seed sector, it said.
“The Agriculture Minister’s remarks show that the government has learnt nothing from the historic farmers’ struggle,” AIKS alleged, accusing the Centre of continuing to “betray the people and the country under pressure from US imperialism and Western corporate interests.”
