Will seeds bill make it this time?

IT HAS been drafted several times in the past six years. The Union agriculture ministry is confident the seeds bill will make it through Parliament this winter session. But opposition parties, and some MPs from the ruling Congress Party, are getting ready to corner the ministry over legislation.

The Seeds Bill 2010, first drafted in 2004, seeks to regulate the production, distribution and sale of seeds, including its import and export, and requires every seed company to meet minimum standards. After Cabinet approval in March, the bill was to be tabled in the Rajya Sabha in mid-April. But the ministry decided to redraft the bill after it received over 100 amendments from several MPs, the government of Andhra Pradesh and farmers groups. Their main grouse was the bill did not have provisions to monitor seed prices nor did it talk adequately about compensation and hold companies liable in case of seed failure.

Ministry sources say the current draft has come into being after several discussions and deliberations by farmers groups and civil society organisation, and is based on the recommendations of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Agriculture.

“But several concerns remain unaddressed,” said Prakash Javadekar, Rajya Sabha member and the spokesperson of opposition Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP). The government should promote quality seeds under vigilance. “The current draft overlooks our long-standing demand for a regulatory mechanism to oversee seed trade, just like the telecom regulatory authority,” said Javadekar. BJP won’t vote for the bill until the ministry introduces the provision, he added.