‘Truthful label', lax laws shield seed firms, farmers pay price

Time of India

29-05-2025

Hyderabad: A few months ago in Mulugu district, over 3,000 acres of maize were reduced to barren fields. The farmers who toiled over this land, season after season, found themselves with nothing but withered crops and empty promises.
In protest, they took to the streets, demanding accountability from seed companies whose defective products led to their losses. An inquiry was launched. Companies agreed to pay compensation—even though the law didn't compel them to. Yet, to this day, not a single rupee has reached the farmers.
This isn't an isolated incident. Lakhs of farmers have suffered similar devastation due to substandard or spurious seeds.
But time and again, the companies responsible walk away unscathed, shielded by outdated laws and a deceptive mechanism known as 'truthful labelling.'
"In the last decade, we must have come across at least 1,000 instances where farmers suffered losses due to spurious seeds," says Pasya Padma, general secretary of the Telangana Rythu Sangham. "And these are just the cases we know about. Most go unreported. Even when farmers go to court, the compensation is meagre—and they rarely receive even a receipt for their purchase," she said.
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The problem runs deep, particularly in Telangana, where cotton, mirchi, and paddy farmers in districts like Adilabad, Nalgonda, Nizamabad, Warangal, and Khammam repeatedly fall victim to this cycle of exploitation.
Take, for instance, another tragedy in Mulugu two years ago. More than 2,000 acres of mirchi crops were wiped out due to faulty seeds sold by a single company. After a legal battle, the company was banned from selling in Telangana.
But instead of facing consequences, they simply relocated their operations to the Andhra-Telangana border—and resumed business as usual.
Truth behind the label
So how do these companies escape liability? The answer lies in the 'truthful label' clause, a loophole in the Central Seed Act of 1966 (amended in 1972). Originally intended to regulate the quality of seeds for India's agricultural sector, the law mandated penalties of a mere Rs 500 for first-time offences and Rs 1,000 or six months' imprisonment for repeat violations.
But the real turning point came in the 1980s, with the liberalisation of the seed industry. The Seed Order of 1986 opened the floodgates for private players, who were now allowed to sell seeds under 'truthful labels'—self-declared assurances of quality without any third party certification. This means a company can print its own claim of quality, sell its product, and face virtually no regulatory scrutiny.
"If companies truly sold high quality seeds under truthful labelling, we wouldn't have a problem," says GV Ramanjaneyulu, agriculture scientist and long-time advocate for seed reforms.
"But they don't. And because there's no certification mechanism, there's no accountability. It's a system built to fail the farmer," he rued.
While companies can be prosecuted under the Essential Commodities Act, enforcement is rare and inconsistent. Experts said farmers will continue to pay the price for a broken system until laws are updated and penalties carry real weight.