The Seed Sector in India

Every good harvest starts with a good seed. India’s seed sector is the vast, mostly invisible system that makes sure farmers get one.

IndEco0204

1963

NSC Founded

The National Seeds Corporation begins operations

1966

Seeds Act Passed

India’s core seed-quality law is enacted

2001

PPV&FR Act

Breeder rights and farmers’ rights, in one law

21 JUL 2026

Progress Shared in Parliament

3,236 new crop varieties released since 2014

2,996 of 3,236: the share of new crop varieties released since 2014 that are climate-resilient, per the 21 July 2026 Lok Sabha reply.

📑 Contents

Timeline

1963: The National Seeds Corporation (NSC) is founded, to produce and distribute quality seed.
1966: Parliament passes the Seeds Act, India’s core seed-quality law.
2001: The PPV&FR Act creates rights for both plant breeders and farmers, in one framework.
21 July 2026: The government tells Parliament that 3,236 new crop varieties have been released since 2014.

India’s seed sector covers everything needed to get quality seed from research labs to farmers’ fields.
The Seeds Act, 1966, is the core law. Along with the Seeds Rules, 1968, and the Seeds (Control) Order, 1983, it regulates seed quality nationwide.
These laws empower State Governments to inspect, test, and enforce seed quality. They also help curb the sale of sub-standard or spurious seed.
The National Seeds Corporation (NSC), founded in 1963, works alongside 17 State Seed Corporations to produce and distribute seed.
The Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers’ Rights (PPV&FR) Act, 2001, is unusual. It grants intellectual property rights to plant breeders, while also protecting farmers’ traditional right to save and exchange seed.
Seed research runs through NARES, the National Agricultural Research and Education System. It spans 56 ICAR Institutes, 48 State Agricultural Universities, and 3 Central Agricultural Universities.
New seed moves through a three-tier chain: breeder seed, then foundation seed, then certified seed, before reaching a farmer’s field.
178 notified Seed Testing Laboratories check seed quality across the country, before it reaches the market.

Between 2014 and 2025, India released 3,236 new field crop varieties. Of these, 2,996 are climate-resilient, including 587 tolerant of extreme drought, flood, salinity, heat, or cold.
Under the PPV&FR Act, 10,802 plant varieties across 219 crop species have been registered so far. More than half of that total, 5,689 varieties, was registered just in 2023-26.
229 Seed Hubs and 384 Breeder Seed Production Centres form the backbone of India’s seed production network.
The SATHI Portal (Seed Authentication, Traceability and Holistic Inventory) gives the whole seed chain digital tracking. It covers production, certification, inventory, and distribution.
India is a founding member of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture. This gives Indian researchers legal access to global germplasm, for breeding new varieties.

The seed sector’s institutions trace back to the Green Revolution, when high-yielding seed varieties first needed mass multiplication and distribution. See IndEco0052 — The Green Revolution and Crop Policy.
Public-private collaboration is now central to the sector. Between 2023-24 and 2025-26, 27 ICAR Institutes signed 1,317 licensing agreements, handing publicly bred varieties to private companies for large-scale multiplication.
India hosts two international crop-research centres. The International Rice Research Institute’s South Asia Regional Centre opened at Varanasi in 2018; a similar potato-research centre, near Agra, was approved on 25 June 2025.
Newer breeding technologies are speeding up the older breeder-to-certified-seed chain. These include Marker-Assisted Selection, Gene Editing, and Speed Breeding.

On 21 July 2026, Minister of State for Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Ramnath Thakur gave a written Lok Sabha reply, on steps to strengthen the seed sector. (Source: PIB)
He confirmed 3,236 field crop varieties were released between 2014 and 2025, of which 2,996 were climate-resilient. (Source: PIB)
Under the PPV&FR Act, 5,689 plant varieties were registered during 2023-26 alone, out of 10,802 registered in total. (Source: PIB)
Seed trade figures for 2025-26 showed India as a net exporter by value: ₹3,023.16 crore in seed exports, against ₹1,755.96 crore in imports. (Source: PIB)