What is the SATHI portal?

SATHI — Seed Authentication, Traceability and Holistic Inventory — is a centralised online platform of the Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare (MoA&FW), Government of India, developed in partnership with the National Informatics Centre (NIC). It brings India's entire seed supply chain — from Breeder Seed (BS) produced by ICAR institutes and State Agricultural Universities, through Foundation Seed (FS) and Certified Seed (CS) multiplied by the National Seeds Corporation, State Seed Corporations and registered seed growers, to Truthfully Labelled Seed (TLS) sold by private seed companies — onto a single QR-code-based traceability system. The stated intent is to solve the long-standing spurious-seed problem by giving every notified seed lot a unique, verifiable identity that a farmer can scan on the packet before sowing.

When was SATHI launched and who runs it?

SATHI was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 25 April 2023, alongside the rollout of 100 Kisan Samruddhi Kendras and other agriculture-sector initiatives announced that day. The portal is jointly developed and operated by the Department of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare (DA&FW) — the nodal department within MoA&FW — and the National Informatics Centre (NIC), which anchors the technology stack. State Seed Certification Agencies (SSCAs), State Seed Corporations, ICAR institutes, State Agricultural Universities (SAUs), private seed companies and licensed seed dealers all onboard onto the platform as stakeholders. The system operates under the existing statutory framework of the Seeds Act 1966, the Seeds Rules 1968 and the Seeds (Control) Order 1983 issued under the Essential Commodities Act 1955.

What problem is SATHI designed to solve?

SATHI is designed primarily to address the spurious- or fake-seed problem in Indian agriculture. Seed is widely reported by ICAR and FAO / ISTA sources to account for roughly 15–20% of yield potential in most field crops — so substandard, mislabelled or counterfeit seed translates directly into yield loss, wasted fertiliser and irrigation, and, in the worst cases, whole-season crop failure for a smallholder. Before SATHI, a farmer buying seed from a dealer had no reliable, decentralised way to verify variety identity, lot number, germination percentage, physical purity or the source of the seed. SATHI's QR-code-per-packet architecture creates that verification layer, and its back-end inventory ledger allows the Seed Certification Agency, the State Nodal Department and the central Seeds Division to trace any suspect lot back through Certified Seed → Foundation Seed → Breeder Seed to the originating agency and production year.

What is the two-phase rollout of SATHI?

SATHI is being rolled out in two phases. Phase-I covers the upstream side of the chain — seed production, certification, licensing, inventory and QR-code labelling for notified varieties within the Seeds Act 1966, Seeds Rules 1968 and Seeds Control Order 1983 framework. In Phase-I, breeder-seed production plans by ICAR institutes and SAUs, foundation-seed indents by the National Seeds Corporation and State Seed Corporations, certified-seed production by registered growers under State Seed Certification Agency (SSCA) supervision, and dealer / seed-company licensing are all captured on the platform, and each packaged lot receives a QR label. Phase-II extends the traceability chain downstream — distribution logistics, dealer-level sales, farmer-side scan events and grievance redressal — so that the end-to-end path from breeder plot to farmer field is visible on a single ledger.

What is the seed chain — Breeder → Foundation → Certified → Truthfully Labelled?

India's seed multiplication chain has four tiers, each of which SATHI tracks with a unique batch / lot identifier. (1) Breeder Seed (BS) is the first-generation seed produced by the breeder at an ICAR institute or State Agricultural University under direct supervision — the genetic-purity gold standard. (2) Foundation Seed (FS) is produced from breeder seed by designated Foundation Seed Producing Agencies such as the National Seeds Corporation, State Seed Corporations, State Farms Corporation of India, State Agricultural Universities and Krishi Vigyan Kendras, and is certified by the State Seed Certification Agency. (3) Certified Seed (CS) is the production-scale seed grown from foundation seed by registered seed growers under SSCA supervision — this is what most Indian farmers buy. (4) Truthfully Labelled Seed (TLS) is the parallel category under the Seeds (Control) Order 1983 where the seed company self-declares variety, purity and germination on the label without going through the SSCA certification chain, but remains subject to dealer licensing and seed inspection. SATHI carries each class through to its QR label.

What does the QR code on a SATHI-tagged seed packet contain?

A SATHI QR code on a seed packet, when scanned, returns the identifying and quality attributes recorded against that lot on the portal — typically variety name and notification reference, batch / lot number, seed class (Breeder, Foundation, Certified or Truthfully Labelled), germination percentage, physical purity percentage, source / producing agency, production year and validity, and the certifying State Seed Certification Agency where applicable. Because these attributes are pulled from the SATHI back-end at scan time rather than being merely printed on the packet, a mismatch between the printed label and the scan result is itself a flag — the packet may have been repackaged, relabelled or counterfeited. The QR is intended to work alongside, not replace, the traditional colour-coded seed tag prescribed under the Indian Minimum Seed Certification Standards.

How does a farmer verify a seed packet with SATHI?

The intended verification workflow is straightforward. Before opening the packet, the farmer scans the QR code with any generic QR reader — the code resolves to a page on the SATHI portal (sathi.uk.gov.in or the national SATHI URL) showing variety name, seed class, lot number, germination and physical purity percentages, source and production year. The farmer compares those details with what is printed on the packet and the colour-coded seed tag physically attached to it. If the details match and the class and tag colour correspond to the seed the dealer sold, the packet is genuine on the portal record. If the QR fails to scan, resolves to an unrelated variety, or shows a mismatch — different variety name, expired production year, wrong seed class — the farmer should not sow the seed and should raise a complaint with the dealer, the District Agriculture Officer or the State Seed Certification Agency, retaining the packet and the tag as evidence.

How does SATHI fit with SMSP, RKVY, NFSM, MIDH and the wider scheme portfolio?

SATHI is the traceability layer that sits under the seed-supply-side schemes. The Sub-Mission on Seeds and Planting Material (SMSP), which anchors the Indian Seeds Programme, the Seed Village Programme and the strengthening of NSC / State Seed Corporations / SSCAs, is the operational and financial backbone for producing the very seed that SATHI tags. NFSM cluster demonstrations and seed minikits in rice, wheat, pulses and nutri-cereals rely on certified seed of notified varieties — every such lot is meant to move through SATHI. NMEO-Oilseeds and MIDH multiply oilseed and horticultural planting material through the same seed-chain apparatus. RKVY / PM-RKVY funds state-level seed-chain infrastructure investments. And NMNF and PKVY natural- and organic-farming clusters draw on SATHI-tagged seed of climate-resilient and traditional varieties. SATHI is not itself a subsidy scheme — it is the verification and inventory rail on top of which these programmes deliver quality seed.

What should a farmer do if the SATHI QR shows fake or mismatched seed?

If a scan of the SATHI QR on a seed packet returns a mismatch — a different variety name, an expired or missing production year, an unknown source, or the QR itself is unreadable or resolves to a page suggesting counterfeit — the farmer should not sow the seed. The recommended steps are to retain the packet, the tag and the invoice / cash memo as evidence, immediately notify the seed dealer in writing, and file a complaint with the District Agriculture Officer and the State Seed Certification Agency in the state. Because seed is a declared essential commodity under the Seeds (Control) Order 1983, dealer-side violations can trigger licence suspension or cancellation under the Order. National-level policy grievances can be filed on the Centralised Public Grievance Redress and Monitoring System (CPGRAMS) at pgportal.gov.in. Compensation for seed-quality-linked crop loss is handled separately under the applicable state seed law and consumer-protection framework, not through SATHI itself.

Where can I access the SATHI portal and related seed-inventory systems?

The SATHI portal is accessible at sathi.uk.gov.in (the currently visible instance hosted with the Uttarakhand cell of NIC and used as the national entry point) and, for older seed-inventory data, at seednet.gov.in — the Seeds Division's long-standing seed information portal that carries the Central Variety Release List, notified varieties, State Seed Certification Agency contacts and foundation-seed indents. The Department of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare at agriwelfare.gov.in publishes the SMSP / Krishonnati Yojana operational guidelines and Annual Action Plan formats that structure how quality seed is produced, and the National Seeds Corporation at indiaseeds.com hosts foundation- and certified-seed indents. ICAR-Indian Institute of Seed Science (ICAR-IISS), Mau, is the apex ICAR institute on seed science and the source of many of the protocols that SATHI operationalises.

SATHI — Seed Authentication, Traceability and Holistic Inventory portal

SATHI (Seed Authentication, Traceability and Holistic Inventory)is the centralised online, QR-code-based traceability platform for India's entire seed supply chain — a joint initiative of the Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare (MoA&FW) and the National Informatics Centre (NIC). Launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 25 April 2023 alongside the rollout of 100 Kisan Samruddhi Kendras, SATHI brings the four-tier Indian Seeds Programme — Breeder Seed (BS) → Foundation Seed (FS) → Certified Seed (CS) → Truthfully Labelled Seed (TLS) — onto a single traceable ledger with a unique QR code per packaged lot. The stated intent is to give farmers a decentralised way to verify seed authenticity before sowing and to give regulators an end-to-end inventory rail on top of the Seeds Act 1966, Seeds Rules 1968 and Seeds (Control) Order 1983 framework.

At a glance

What it is: a centralised, QR-code-based seed authentication, traceability and inventory portal for the Indian seed supply chain.
Nodal ministry:Department of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare (DA&FW), Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare (MoA&FW), Government of India.
Technology partner: National Informatics Centre (NIC).
Launch: by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 25 April 2023, alongside 100 Kisan Samruddhi Kendras and other agriculture-sector initiatives announced that day.
Statutory framework: Seeds Act 1966, Seeds Rules 1968 and Seeds (Control) Order 1983 (issued under the Essential Commodities Act 1955).
Rollout: two phases — Phase-I covers seed production, certification, licensing, inventory and QR-code labelling for notified varieties; Phase-II extends traceability to distribution and dealer-level sales.
Seed classes tracked: Breeder Seed (BS), Foundation Seed (FS), Certified Seed (CS), Truthfully Labelled Seed (TLS).
Stakeholders on the platform:DA&FW, State Seed Certification Agencies (SSCAs), State Seed Corporations, National Seeds Corporation, ICAR institutes (IARI, IIRR, IIWBR and others) as breeder-seed producers, State Agricultural Universities (SAUs), Krishi Vigyan Kendras, registered private seed companies, licensed seed dealers and farmers.
Portal: sathi.uk.gov.in; older seed-inventory data at seednet.gov.in.

The spurious-seed problem SATHI solves

Seed is the most concentrated input a farmer buys. Across ICAR and FAO / ISTA sources, seed is widely reported to account for approximately 15–20% of yield potential in most field crops — so a substandard, mislabelled or counterfeit seed lot translates directly into yield loss, wasted fertiliser and irrigation, and, in the worst cases, whole-season crop failure. For a smallholder buying seed at the start of a season, seed quality is also the input with the least visible verification: variety identity, germination percentage, physical purity and source cannot be judged by eye at the counter.

The Department of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare and the state seed regulators have long relied on the printed colour-coded seed tag, dealer licensing under the Seeds (Control) Order 1983, and post-facto seed-inspection and seed-analyst testing to police seed quality. SATHI adds a decentralised, farmer-side verification layer on top of that regime: any packet with a SATHI QR can be scanned by the farmer, the dealer, the block agriculture officer or a consumer-side inspector to pull the identifying and quality attributes of that specific lot from the SATHI back-end in real time — turning what used to be a trust exercise into a lookup.

How SATHI works — the QR-code-based traceability chain

SATHI ingests seed-chain events at each stage of the Indian Seeds Programme and issues a unique batch / lot identifier that survives onto the packaged seed as a QR label:

Breeder seed production by an ICAR institute or State Agricultural University against a notified variety is recorded on the platform — quantity, source plot, production year and destination Foundation Seed Producing Agency.
Foundation seed multiplication by the National Seeds Corporation, State Seed Corporations, State Farms Corporation of India, SAUs and KVKs is entered as an outgoing lot from the breeder-seed pool and an incoming lot in the foundation-seed inventory, certified by the State Seed Certification Agency.
Certified seed production by registered seed growers and private seed companies under SSCA supervision is entered as an outgoing lot from the foundation-seed inventory — with field-inspection, germination and physical-purity results attached to the lot record.
Truthfully Labelled seed produced by private seed companies under the Seeds (Control) Order 1983 is entered with the self-declared variety, purity and germination attributes required on the TL label.
QR-code labelling on the packaged lot — every lot receives a unique QR that resolves to its record on the SATHI portal. Because the record is fetched from the back-end at scan time rather than being merely printed, any mismatch between what a packet claims and what SATHI returns is itself a flag.
Distribution and dealer sales (Phase-II)extend the ledger downstream — dealer-side inventory, farmer-side scan events and grievance redressal — so the packet's full path from breeder plot to farmer field becomes visible.

The seed classes: Breeder → Foundation → Certified → Truthfully Labelled

SATHI reflects the four-tier Indian Seeds Programme that our Sub-Mission on Seeds and Planting Material (SMSP) guide describes in detail. In summary:

Nucleus seed is the original genetically-pure seed of a released variety, produced by the breeder — the starting point.
Breeder Seed (BS) is the first generation from nucleus seed, produced by the breeder under strict supervision at an ICAR institute or SAU and supplied to designated Foundation Seed Producing Agencies.
Foundation Seed (FS) is produced from breeder seed by NSC, State Seed Corporations, State Farms, KVKs and SAUs; certified by the SSCA; used as the input for certified-seed production.
Certified Seed (CS) is the production-scale seed grown from foundation seed by registered seed growers and seed companies, again under SSCA supervision — this is what most Indian farmers buy.
Truthfully Labelled (TL) Seed is the parallel category under the Seeds (Control) Order 1983 where the seed company self-declares variety, purity and germination on the label without going through the SSCA certification chain, but remains subject to dealer licensing and seed inspection.

The Indian Minimum Seed Certification Standards prescribe a colour-coded tag for each seed class — traditionally golden-yellow for Breeder, white for Foundation, azure blue for Certified and opal green for Truthfully Labelled. SATHI's QR code is intended to work alongside — not replace — this tag: a farmer or inspector reads the physical tag colour to identify the seed class, and then scans the QR to confirm the lot attributes on the platform.

Phase-I and Phase-II rollout

SATHI is being rolled out in two phases so that the upstream production-and-certification side is stabilised before the downstream distribution-and-sales side is instrumented at scale.

Phase-I — Seed production, certification, licensing, inventory and QR labelling. Breeder-seed production plans by ICAR institutes and SAUs, foundation-seed indents by NSC and State Seed Corporations, certified-seed production by registered growers under SSCA supervision, and seed-company and dealer licensing are all captured on the platform. Every packaged lot of notified variety receives a SATHI QR.
Phase-II — Distribution and dealer-level sales. The traceability chain extends downstream to distribution logistics, dealer-level sales, farmer-side scan events and the grievance-redressal loop. Once Phase-II is stabilised, the end-to-end path from a breeder plot at an ICAR institute to a farmer's field becomes visible on a single ledger and any lot can be traced in both directions in the event of a quality or authenticity dispute.

Institutional architecture

Department of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare (DA&FW), MoA&FW — nodal department, owns the SATHI programme and issues operational and standards guidance through the Seeds Division.
National Informatics Centre (NIC) — technology partner; hosts the SATHI portal and builds the back-end ingest and QR-lookup services.
State Seed Certification Agencies (SSCAs) — statutory certification bodies under the Seeds Act 1966; responsible for foundation- and certified-seed field inspection, germination and physical-purity testing, and lot certification recorded on SATHI.
Central Seed Committee and Central Seed Certification Board (CSCB)— apex advisory and standards bodies under the Seeds Act 1966; the Central Sub-Committee on Crop Standards, Notification and Release of Varieties (CSCCSN&RV) notifies the varieties whose seed is tracked.
National Seeds Corporation, State Seed Corporations and State Farms Corporation of India — public-sector foundation- and certified-seed producers.
ICAR institutes and State Agricultural Universities — breeder-seed producers; ICAR-Indian Institute of Seed Science (ICAR-IISS), Mau, is the apex institute on seed science and seed-quality protocols.
Krishi Vigyan Kendras — extension anchors and in some cases foundation-seed multipliers under the Seed Village Programme.
Private seed companies and licensed seed dealers — onboarded as the downstream stakeholders whose lots, licences and dealer inventories are represented on SATHI.
Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers' Rights (PPV&FR) Authority— administers the PPV&FR Act 2001 that grants IPR-style protection to plant varieties while preserving the farmer's right to save, use, exchange and sell farm-saved seed; the variety-identity backbone that SATHI relies on.

How a farmer verifies a seed packet

The intended verification workflow at the farmer's end is deliberately simple:

Before opening the packet, scan the SATHI QR code on the packet with any generic QR-code reader on a mobile phone.
The QR resolves to a page on the SATHI portal that displays the identifying and quality attributes of that lot — variety name and notification reference, seed class, batch / lot number, germination percentage, physical purity percentage, source / producing agency, production year and validity, and the certifying SSCA where applicable.
Compare those details with what is printed on the packet and with the colour-coded seed tag physically attached — golden yellow for Breeder, white for Foundation, azure blue for Certified, opal green for Truthfully Labelled.
If the details match and the class and tag colour correspond to the seed the dealer sold, the packet is genuine on the SATHI record.
If the QR fails to scan, resolves to an unrelated variety, or shows a mismatch — different variety name, expired production year, wrong seed class — do not sow the seed. Retain the packet, the tag and the invoice / cash memo as evidence, notify the dealer in writing, and file a complaint with the District Agriculture Officer and the State Seed Certification Agency. National-level policy grievances can be filed on pgportal.gov.in.

Convergence with other schemes

SATHI is not itself a subsidy scheme — it is the verification and inventory rail on top of which the seed-supply-side schemes operate. The most important convergence partners:

Sub-Mission on Seeds and Planting Material (SMSP) — the operational and financial backbone of the Indian Seeds Programme; funds the Seed Village Programme, the strengthening of NSC / State Seed Corporations / SSCAs and the seed regulatory regime. SATHI is the traceability layer on the seed that SMSP funds into existence. See also BBSSL — Bharatiya Beej Sahakari Samiti Limited, the national multi-state cooperative seed society (Cabinet-approved 11 January 2023) whose PACS-produced seed lots move through SATHI.
Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana (RKVY / PM-RKVY) — state-plan window that funds seed-chain infrastructure investments (processing plants, seed storage, seed testing labs) that SATHI records the output of.
National Food Security Mission (NFSM) — cluster demonstrations and seed minikits in rice, wheat, pulses, coarse cereals and nutri-cereals depend on certified seed of notified varieties. Every such lot is meant to move through SATHI so that a farmer receiving a minikit can verify its authenticity.
Mission for Integrated Development of Horticulture (MIDH) — horticultural planting material (fruit saplings, vegetable seed, spice and plantation crops) sits under the same quality-and-traceability logic; the SATHI framework provides the model for horticultural seed traceability under the MIDH nurseries programme.
National Mission on Edible Oils — Oilseeds (NMEO-Oilseeds) — the oilseed-varieties seed-chain investments approved by the Union Cabinet on 3 October 2024 draw on the same SATHI-tracked Breeder → Foundation → Certified → TL apparatus.
National Mission on Natural Farming (NMNF) and Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojana (PKVY) — natural- and organic-farming clusters rely on seed of climate-resilient, locally-adapted and traditional varieties. SATHI-tagged seed of these varieties gives PKVY / NMNF farmers the same authenticity guarantee as conventional certified seed.

External resources

SATHI portal (sathi.uk.gov.in) — the currently visible SATHI instance hosted with the Uttarakhand cell of NIC and used as the national entry point.
seednet.gov.in — the Seeds Division's long-standing seed information portal carrying the Central Variety Release List, notified varieties, SSCA contacts and foundation-seed indents.
agriwelfare.gov.in — Department of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare; SMSP / Krishonnati Yojana operational guidelines and Annual Action Plan formats that structure how quality seed is produced.
indiaseeds.com — National Seeds Corporation; foundation- and certified-seed indents and the seed-buying portal.
iiss.icar.gov.in — ICAR-Indian Institute of Seed Science (ICAR-IISS), Mau; the apex ICAR institute on seed science, breeder-seed production protocols and seed-purity testing.
plantauthority.gov.in — Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers' Rights Authority; the variety-identity backbone SATHI relies on.
indiacode.nic.in — authoritative text of the Seeds Act 1966, the Seeds Rules 1968 and the Seeds (Control) Order 1983.
Press Information Bureau (PIB) — coverage of the 25 April 2023 launch by Prime Minister Narendra Modi alongside 100 Kisan Samruddhi Kendras and other agriculture-sector initiatives.

Frequently asked questions

What is the SATHI portal?: SATHI — Seed Authentication, Traceability and Holistic Inventory — is a centralised online platform of the Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare (MoA&FW), Government of India, developed in partnership with the National Informatics Centre (NIC). It brings India's entire seed supply chain — from Breeder Seed (BS) produced by ICAR institutes and State Agricultural Universities, through Foundation Seed (FS) and Certified Seed (CS) multiplied by the National Seeds Corporation, State Seed Corporations and registered seed growers, to Truthfully Labelled Seed (TLS) sold by private seed companies — onto a single QR-code-based traceability system. The stated intent is to solve the long-standing spurious-seed problem by giving every notified seed lot a unique, verifiable identity that a farmer can scan on the packet before sowing.
When was SATHI launched and who runs it?: SATHI was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 25 April 2023, alongside the rollout of 100 Kisan Samruddhi Kendras and other agriculture-sector initiatives announced that day. The portal is jointly developed and operated by the Department of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare (DA&FW) — the nodal department within MoA&FW — and the National Informatics Centre (NIC), which anchors the technology stack. State Seed Certification Agencies (SSCAs), State Seed Corporations, ICAR institutes, State Agricultural Universities (SAUs), private seed companies and licensed seed dealers all onboard onto the platform as stakeholders. The system operates under the existing statutory framework of the Seeds Act 1966, the Seeds Rules 1968 and the Seeds (Control) Order 1983 issued under the Essential Commodities Act 1955.
What problem is SATHI designed to solve?: SATHI is designed primarily to address the spurious- or fake-seed problem in Indian agriculture. Seed is widely reported by ICAR and FAO / ISTA sources to account for roughly 15–20% of yield potential in most field crops — so substandard, mislabelled or counterfeit seed translates directly into yield loss, wasted fertiliser and irrigation, and, in the worst cases, whole-season crop failure for a smallholder. Before SATHI, a farmer buying seed from a dealer had no reliable, decentralised way to verify variety identity, lot number, germination percentage, physical purity or the source of the seed. SATHI's QR-code-per-packet architecture creates that verification layer, and its back-end inventory ledger allows the Seed Certification Agency, the State Nodal Department and the central Seeds Division to trace any suspect lot back through Certified Seed → Foundation Seed → Breeder Seed to the originating agency and production year.
What is the two-phase rollout of SATHI?: SATHI is being rolled out in two phases. Phase-I covers the upstream side of the chain — seed production, certification, licensing, inventory and QR-code labelling for notified varieties within the Seeds Act 1966, Seeds Rules 1968 and Seeds Control Order 1983 framework. In Phase-I, breeder-seed production plans by ICAR institutes and SAUs, foundation-seed indents by the National Seeds Corporation and State Seed Corporations, certified-seed production by registered growers under State Seed Certification Agency (SSCA) supervision, and dealer / seed-company licensing are all captured on the platform, and each packaged lot receives a QR label. Phase-II extends the traceability chain downstream — distribution logistics, dealer-level sales, farmer-side scan events and grievance redressal — so that the end-to-end path from breeder plot to farmer field is visible on a single ledger.
What is the seed chain — Breeder → Foundation → Certified → Truthfully Labelled?: India's seed multiplication chain has four tiers, each of which SATHI tracks with a unique batch / lot identifier. (1) Breeder Seed (BS) is the first-generation seed produced by the breeder at an ICAR institute or State Agricultural University under direct supervision — the genetic-purity gold standard. (2) Foundation Seed (FS) is produced from breeder seed by designated Foundation Seed Producing Agencies such as the National Seeds Corporation, State Seed Corporations, State Farms Corporation of India, State Agricultural Universities and Krishi Vigyan Kendras, and is certified by the State Seed Certification Agency. (3) Certified Seed (CS) is the production-scale seed grown from foundation seed by registered seed growers under SSCA supervision — this is what most Indian farmers buy. (4) Truthfully Labelled Seed (TLS) is the parallel category under the Seeds (Control) Order 1983 where the seed company self-declares variety, purity and germination on the label without going through the SSCA certification chain, but remains subject to dealer licensing and seed inspection. SATHI carries each class through to its QR label.
What does the QR code on a SATHI-tagged seed packet contain?: A SATHI QR code on a seed packet, when scanned, returns the identifying and quality attributes recorded against that lot on the portal — typically variety name and notification reference, batch / lot number, seed class (Breeder, Foundation, Certified or Truthfully Labelled), germination percentage, physical purity percentage, source / producing agency, production year and validity, and the certifying State Seed Certification Agency where applicable. Because these attributes are pulled from the SATHI back-end at scan time rather than being merely printed on the packet, a mismatch between the printed label and the scan result is itself a flag — the packet may have been repackaged, relabelled or counterfeited. The QR is intended to work alongside, not replace, the traditional colour-coded seed tag prescribed under the Indian Minimum Seed Certification Standards.
How does a farmer verify a seed packet with SATHI?: The intended verification workflow is straightforward. Before opening the packet, the farmer scans the QR code with any generic QR reader — the code resolves to a page on the SATHI portal (sathi.uk.gov.in or the national SATHI URL) showing variety name, seed class, lot number, germination and physical purity percentages, source and production year. The farmer compares those details with what is printed on the packet and the colour-coded seed tag physically attached to it. If the details match and the class and tag colour correspond to the seed the dealer sold, the packet is genuine on the portal record. If the QR fails to scan, resolves to an unrelated variety, or shows a mismatch — different variety name, expired production year, wrong seed class — the farmer should not sow the seed and should raise a complaint with the dealer, the District Agriculture Officer or the State Seed Certification Agency, retaining the packet and the tag as evidence.
How does SATHI fit with SMSP, RKVY, NFSM, MIDH and the wider scheme portfolio?: SATHI is the traceability layer that sits under the seed-supply-side schemes. The Sub-Mission on Seeds and Planting Material (SMSP), which anchors the Indian Seeds Programme, the Seed Village Programme and the strengthening of NSC / State Seed Corporations / SSCAs, is the operational and financial backbone for producing the very seed that SATHI tags. NFSM cluster demonstrations and seed minikits in rice, wheat, pulses and nutri-cereals rely on certified seed of notified varieties — every such lot is meant to move through SATHI. NMEO-Oilseeds and MIDH multiply oilseed and horticultural planting material through the same seed-chain apparatus. RKVY / PM-RKVY funds state-level seed-chain infrastructure investments. And NMNF and PKVY natural- and organic-farming clusters draw on SATHI-tagged seed of climate-resilient and traditional varieties. SATHI is not itself a subsidy scheme — it is the verification and inventory rail on top of which these programmes deliver quality seed.
What should a farmer do if the SATHI QR shows fake or mismatched seed?: If a scan of the SATHI QR on a seed packet returns a mismatch — a different variety name, an expired or missing production year, an unknown source, or the QR itself is unreadable or resolves to a page suggesting counterfeit — the farmer should not sow the seed. The recommended steps are to retain the packet, the tag and the invoice / cash memo as evidence, immediately notify the seed dealer in writing, and file a complaint with the District Agriculture Officer and the State Seed Certification Agency in the state. Because seed is a declared essential commodity under the Seeds (Control) Order 1983, dealer-side violations can trigger licence suspension or cancellation under the Order. National-level policy grievances can be filed on the Centralised Public Grievance Redress and Monitoring System (CPGRAMS) at pgportal.gov.in. Compensation for seed-quality-linked crop loss is handled separately under the applicable state seed law and consumer-protection framework, not through SATHI itself.
Where can I access the SATHI portal and related seed-inventory systems?: The SATHI portal is accessible at sathi.uk.gov.in (the currently visible instance hosted with the Uttarakhand cell of NIC and used as the national entry point) and, for older seed-inventory data, at seednet.gov.in — the Seeds Division's long-standing seed information portal that carries the Central Variety Release List, notified varieties, State Seed Certification Agency contacts and foundation-seed indents. The Department of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare at agriwelfare.gov.in publishes the SMSP / Krishonnati Yojana operational guidelines and Annual Action Plan formats that structure how quality seed is produced, and the National Seeds Corporation at indiaseeds.com hosts foundation- and certified-seed indents. ICAR-Indian Institute of Seed Science (ICAR-IISS), Mau, is the apex ICAR institute on seed science and the source of many of the protocols that SATHI operationalises.

Launch date, two-phase rollout, seed-chain classes and stakeholder architecture above summarise publicly available material on sathi.uk.gov.in, seednet.gov.in, the 25 April 2023 PIB coverage and the DA&FW Seeds Division notes on agriwelfare.gov.in. Portal instance URLs, dealer-onboarding status and state-wise Phase-I / Phase-II coverage evolve through operational circulars; farmers, seed dealers and state functionaries should verify the current SATHI instance and state-specific onboarding status with the State Seed Certification Agency and the State Nodal Department, not from a general reference page.