Parliament Question: MoUs with Department of Post on fake seeds, fertilizers and pesticides

O.I.H GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF AGRICULTURE AND FARMERS WELFARE DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE AND FARMERS WELFARE RAJYA SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 833 TO BE ANSWERED ON 06/02/2026 MOUs WITH DEPARTMENT OF POST ON FAKE SEEDS, FERTILIZERS AND PESTICIDES 833 # SMT. DARSHANA SINGH: Will the Minister of AGRICULTURE AND FARMERS WELFARE be pleased to state:- (a) whether the Ministry recently signed two Memorandum of Understandings (MoUs) with the Department of Posts to protect farmers from losses caused due to fake seeds, fertilizers and pesticides; (b) the type of legal action, monitoring and enforcement measures to be implemented under these MoUs; and (c) whether it is likely to provide immediate and effective relief to the farmers, if so, by when its implementation would begin? ANSWER MINISTER OF STATE FOR AGRICULTURE AND FARMERS WELFARE (SHRI RAMNATH THAKUR) (a) to (c): The Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Department of Posts on 07.01.2026 to operationalize a standardized, faceless, and fully traceable logistics mechanism for the transportation and quality control of samples of seeds, fertilizers and pesticides. The MoU aims to ensure secure, time-bound, and tamper-proof movement of samples from collection points to designated laboratories, with end-to-end digital tracking. This digital and logistics-enabled framework strengthens the agri-input quality control mechanism through end-to-end digitization of key processes, including fixation of quality control targets at the State level, collection and dispatch of samples, laboratory analysis, generation of test reports, and initiation of prosecution, wherever required. Legal action, if any, is taken as per the respective acts under which the commodity is governed. The initiative enhances transparency, accountability and efficiency in enforcement, prevents circulation of sub-standard or spurious agri-inputs and ensures timely availability of quality inputs to farmers, thereby safeguarding crop productivity and farmers’ interests. ****