Patna, March 15: Parliament is set to discuss the new Seeds Bill, 2010 with amendments but Bihar’s past experience with seeds sold by multinational companies is haunting the state government.

In the 2009-10 rabi season, maize farmers using private hybrid seeds in 61,000 hectares, suffered immensely because of no productivity. In the same season, the farmers using the maize hybrid seeds of a public sector unit remained unaffected.

The private multinational company did not compensate the poor farmers incurring loss because of non-production. The state government had to foot Rs 61 crore for farmers losing out in the season at the rate of Rs 10,000 per hectare.

“The issue of compensation in case of losses is relevant in Bihar. The other issue is GM seeds. The world is divided over it. The US scientists have approved it and the European experts have expressed reservation over it,” said Anil Jha, an agricultural scientist. He agreed with the concern of chief minister Nitish Kumar over the GM seeds as it involved lives of millions of peasants across the state.

On Tuesday, Nitish shot-off a letter to Union agriculture minister Sharad Pawar, a copy of which was addressed to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, expressing reservation over the “attempt to push through the legislation”.

“The bill in its present form will lead to unrestricted commercialisation of varieties in the public domain, including farm varieties,” he has warned in the letter, stressing that the quality of seeds cannot be divorced from cost and if seeds are not available to farmers at an affordable price, the bill has no meaning.

He said the act should carry provisions for regulating the prices of seeds.

The chief minister has also opposed the provision for re-registration of seeds and said it would lead to monopoly of the seed company for at least 20 years.

Another issue deserving consideration is a mechanism for compensation to farmers. No criterion has been laid down for determining it.

It could be anything from the cost of seeds to cultivation cost or the price of expected produce.

“This will create confusion and prove to be a big hindrance in uniform administration of the provisions,” Nitish wrote in his letter.

He said the act should also prescribe a time limit for disposal of compensation claims so that the compensation is disbursed to the farmers before the next crop season.

Nitish has also aired his concern over rushing the use of GM crops without adequate safeguards.

The proposed bill should lay down these safeguards explicitly, he said.