The Indian government is in no hurry to accept the Punjab government’s demand to denotify hybrid rice varieties seeds for the State. This follows the finding that all the 23 hybrid varieties released after 2015 have higher than the benchmark standards in terms of recovery, which is minimum 67 per cent for milling (conversion from paddy to rice) and 55 per cent head rice (unbroken grain). However, the issue would be resolved after discussing with the State government, sources said.

The Punjab government recently wrote to the Centre requesting it to de-notify all the hybrid paddy (non-Basmati) varieties so that it can check sales of those seeds under a State law in force for last many years.

In August 2025, the Punjab and Haryana High Court quashed the State government’s ban on hybrid paddy seeds, which was imposed in April last year. However, the Court allowed the state to restrict sales of any non-notified varieties seeds.

Sources said that since the seeds in question were notified by the Centre, it would be able to curb their sales once those were denotified. However, the Centre has to examine the issue thoroughly since companies may drag it to court if the denotification was not on legally valid ground, sources said.

ICAR opinion

The Agriculture Ministry has received expert opinion from the Indian Council of Agricultural Research based on which it would discuss the matter with Punjab government, sources said.

The main contention of the Punjab government was said to be that some of these hybrid rice varieties result in lower realisation than 67 per cent that millers are supposed to supply to the Food Corporation of India (FCI) after processing the procured paddy.

As millers were reluctant to process certain varieties which they could not segregate from the entire purchased volume, they resorted to a strike in 2024 by not lifting the paddy from mandis. This had caused a delay in procurement and farmers had resorted to protests. Later, the Centre sent the issue of lower realisation from paddy to rice to IIT Kharagpur to make a study.

Sources said that due to upto 25 per cent higher yield compared to normal varieties, more and more farmers are adopting hybrid paddy seeds despite three-times higher seed costs and also higher fertiliser requirement. The 100 per cent paddy procurement at minimum support price (MSP) is also a major factor in Punjab since the return of farmers is assured, the sources said.

Published on May 8, 2026