Union Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan announced on Saturday, June 13, 2026, that BRICS member nations have reached significant agreements to deepen agricultural cooperation, including consensus on establishing a new global forum to protect farmers' rights, traditional knowledge, and seed heritage.

Context

Posting on X under the hashtag #BRICS2026, Chouhan wrote that 'BRICS कृषि सहयोग को नई दिशा मिली है' — 'BRICS agricultural cooperation has received a new direction.' The announcements signal a fresh round of multilateral commitments among the grouping's member states on food systems and farm-sector governance.

Central to the announcement is the consensus on establishing a Global Forum on Farmers' Rights in Seed Systems, a proposed multilateral body aimed at safeguarding farmers' rights, traditional agricultural knowledge, and seed heritage. Chouhan also confirmed agreement on forming a BRICS Agro Inputs, Genetic Resources and Information Network to coordinate on agricultural inputs and genetic resource data across member countries.

Policy Backdrop

BRICS agriculture ministers have convened annually since 2010 under a Joint Working Group to coordinate on food security and research collaboration. At the 2023 Johannesburg Summit, BRICS leaders had endorsed expanded cooperation on climate-resilient agriculture and trade facilitation — the agreements announced by Chouhan build directly on that mandate.

India has consistently used the BRICS platform to advocate for the protection of traditional knowledge and seed systems alongside digital and research-driven agricultural initiatives. These multilateral efforts run parallel to similar positions India has taken in G20 agriculture working groups and bilateral channels with member states.

The minister also announced that the existing BRICS Agricultural Research Platform will be strengthened and repositioned as a Knowledge to Action Hub, giving the platform an operational mandate to translate research into field-level outcomes for farmers across member nations.

Stakeholders and Impact

The agreements span several critical sectors: agricultural trade, food security, climate-resilient farming, digital innovation, fisheries, and animal husbandry. Taken together, they represent a broad-based effort to make agricultural and food systems across BRICS nations more resilient, sustainable, and future-ready — the precise framing used by Chouhan in his post.

Farmers and agricultural research institutions across BRICS member states stand to be the primary stakeholders. The proposed Global Forum on Farmers' Rights in Seed Systems in particular addresses longstanding concerns among smallholder farming communities about the erosion of indigenous seed varieties and traditional agrarian knowledge under commercial pressures.

The BRICS Agro Inputs, Genetic Resources and Information Network is expected to facilitate data-sharing on genetic resources and farm inputs — a cooperation area that has gained urgency as climate change disrupts established crop cycles and supply chains across the developing world.

What's Next

The operationalisation of the announced bodies — particularly the Global Forum on Farmers' Rights in Seed Systems and the BRICS Agro Inputs, Genetic Resources and Information Network — will depend on follow-up ministerial and expert-group meetings among member nations. Observers will watch whether these commitments are reflected in formal BRICS 2026 summit documents.

If institutionalised effectively, the Knowledge to Action Hub model for the BRICS Agricultural Research Platform could set a precedent for how the grouping converts multilateral research consensus into tangible policy outcomes — a test that will define the credibility of this latest round of agricultural diplomacy.