Dr. Devendra Kumar Yadava Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR)

Dr. Yadava is associated with Brassica breeding for 29 years and has revolutionized brassica breeding and seed system in India. He has contributed in development of 24 varieties which include 21 of mustard and three of pulses. Pusa Double Zero Mustard 31, the Country’s FIRST Canola quality variety, is branded as “INDOLA” enabling the acceptability of mustard in non-traditional areas and southern regions making it pan India oil.

He is contributing towards development of various national regulations/ policies/ guidelines related to varieties, germplasm, seed, IPRs etc. as ADG (Seed) from 2017-2025 and currently DDG (CS) since February, 2025. He has guided three M.Sc. and eight Ph.D. students and published >100 research papers in high impact factor journals.

Enabling Policies for Public-Private Partnership in Seed Sector Advancement in India

India's agricultural future depends on harnessing innovation through collaborative models. Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) in the seed sector represent a strategic approach to accelerating the development and delivery of high-yielding, climate-resilient varieties to farmers. While the private sector has demonstrated success with crops like Bt cotton, systematic collaboration across more crops requires supportive policies that leverage the complementary strengths of both sectors.

Key Policy Enablers:

1. Enhancing collaborations in Research: Foster strong and mutually beneficial public-private partnerships (PPPs) between public research institutions and private sector companies for collaborative research and development, seed production, and efficient upscaling of hybrid technologies. Develop innovative licensing models and frameworks to facilitate these partnerships.
2. Sharing of Novel Germplasm: Mechanism to share Trait-specific germplasm, Transgenic events, Gene edited mutants, Pre-breeding/advance breeding lines, Region specific potential genotypes, Parental lines (CMS and Restorers) with tested combining ability, Excel drops etc.
3. Intellectual Property & Benefit Sharing: Framework for germplasm access and benefit sharing is in place which incentivise private investment while ensuring public institutions fairly contribute and benefit from collaborations.
4. Regulatory Streamlining: Efficient and predictable variety testing and release mechanisms is in place, encouraging private sector participation in research and development. Developing mechanism to expedite varietal testing reducing the time between development and release of a genotype.
5. Risk and Resource Sharing: Well-defined models for cost-sharing, resource pooling, and risk management make partnerships more attractive and sustainable for all stakeholders.
6. Market-Oriented Approach: Policies should encourage development of varieties that meet specific farmer needs while ensuring efficient distribution systems, fair pricing, avoid seed piracy and keep farmer’s welfare as top priority especially smallholder farmers.

Private sector should also fairly and honestly declare and contribute to the assess and benefit sharing, for using public sector germplasm and varieties too. Ensuring equitable sharing of the IPR coming out from PPP model.