India seeks to protect national agricultural seed collections and native plant species, before a November 24-29, 2025 plant genetics summit in Lima, Peru.
Union Minister of Agriculture Singh Chouhan has backed the idea by promising an amendment of the Plant Variety and Farmers’ Rights Protection Authority Act.
The governmental decision comes after biologists resisted proposals to expand accessibility of national plants internationally beyond a current 64 crops.
Expanding the Multilateral System (MLS) might allow international access of exclusive seeds that exotic farmers have grown for centuries.
MLS’ expansion will be a focus at the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA) summit in Peru.
Scientists are pressuring the Union government not to concede rights lest it virtually opens a pandora’s box to India’s genetic resources.
They opine that very few of the numerous crop genetic concessions that India has historically shared internationally has benefited farmers.
While international seed companies make fortunes out of voluntary access, farmers in origin nations get no financial compensation.
Ironically, traditional crops have escaped extinction through the efforts of farmers and bodies like the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR).
It is necessary therefore that every crop-sharing concession mandates seed companies to pass some of their revenue to India’s growers.
Non-Voluntary Crop Gene Access Subscription
According to a scientific group that includes Dinesh Abrol, fostering a forcible subscription service for companies is one way out.
This means access of seeds will be tied to corporate turnover, which will insure fairness for origin countries.
If such a subscription came up, India’s vast plant resources and hybrid agricultural seed collections would benefit greatly.
There are about 15,000 species of flowering plants in the country that make up about 6% of the global species.
Like India, the 2025 ITPGRFA host, Peru, already authenticates plants including 750 potato varieties but allows international marketing. The stats below in turn look at India’s vast flora inclusive of crop seeds.
India’s Flora and Agricultural Seed Collections Statistics
Subcontinental India occupies some 3.287 million square km. It is home to 7 to 8% of the global plant and animal species, per the Earth Site UK. Of the two, flora is the most diverse. The World Conservation Monitoring Centre records 1.604 million plant species worldwide, 8% of which from India. Some 15,000 to 16,000 species of plants in the country are flowering plants representing 6% of the global flowering plant species.
A further portion of these vast floral riches pervades the agricultural sector through traditional varieties and hybrid seeds. India has over 320 species of wild plants from which domesticated crops have descended. So far, there are 167 crop species in the country, 64 of which the country shares internationally via multilateral access.
How financially big is India’s seed sector?
India’s seed sector was worth above $6 billion in 2025, the 5th biggest globally, per a research publication on Springer Nature. This financial lead owes to the distribution of seed genomes by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) in the 1990s. Beforehand in the 1960s, hybrid seeds had already developed in the country.
Does India have traditional rice species?
As the staple food of India, rice enjoys 6% of traditional varieties in terms of procurement by the government. Analysts opine that this could increase if the government increased seed banks for the grain and upped the procurement of traditional cultivars.