The Ministry of Cooperation aims to improve access for traditional farmers in hill districts across the country, including the northeastern states, by distributing standardised quality seeds that are certified, affordable, and designed to boost production. The multi-state cooperative society Bhartiya Beej Sahkari Samiti Limited (BBSSL), established by the Ministry of Cooperation, signing a memorandum of understanding with the states expanding the availability and marketing of quality seeds under the “Bharat Beej” brand is aimed at helping farmers transform subsistence farming into commercial-scale production. Finding a good balance between traditional and local seeds is important to avoid damaging the delicate hill ecosystems that could happen if only uniform and highly standardised seeds are used. While standardised seeds offer hill dwellers the opportunity to access larger markets by increasing the production of quality food crops, indigenous seeds serve as a protective barrier against crop failure caused by extreme weather conditions due to their climate-resilient characteristics. Observing traditional farming practices at high altitudes of mountains and hills of the region through a narrow lens of productivity and income level of traditional hill farmers is problematic, as it eclipses the crucial ecological and climate resilience benefits derived by these farmers from traditional seed varieties for ages. As the commercial supply chains established by market forces require a seamless supply of uniform-quality produce from farm gates to processing industries to cater to domestic and export market demands, the market pressure expanding the area under the “Bharat Beej” brand and other standardised seeds is poised to grow on the farmers practising traditional farming using indigenous seeds preserved by them. The establishment of National Cooperative Exports Limited (NCEL) as an umbrella organisation to export the goods and services of cooperative societies and NCEL signing MoUs with the northeastern states to channel produce from the hills into international markets reinforces the perception that hill farming must undergo market-driven transformation. Informing the farmers about the pros and cons of aggressively pushing the replacement of traditional seeds with highly standardised seeds by organising frequent and widespread consultation, in the presence of local experts of hill and mountain ecosystems and traditional farming practices, is essential to integrate adequate safeguards against potential supply shocks. If there is a shortage of standardised seeds in a hill area where traditional seeds have been completely replaced by modern, standardised seeds without any buffer of indigenous varieties, food security may be at risk in the event of crop failure caused by extreme weather conditions, drastic climate change, or pest infestations. The pragmatic option is to support hill farmers in maintaining a buffer of traditional climate-resilient seeds and to preserve the associated farming knowledge by continuing to grow these crops on a certain percentage of their farmland. Incentivising the preservation of traditional farming by procuring farm produce, which is organic by default, at a minimum support price set by the respective state and central government agencies can boost farmers’ confidence in experimenting with standardised seeds. The establishment of National Cooperative Organics Limited (NCOL) as an umbrella organisation for the procurement, aggregation, certification, testing, branding and marketing of organic produce and the organisation signing MoUs with northeastern states are encouraging developments. Putting more produce grown with traditional seeds in this basket will be critical to guaranteeing remunerative prices for the hill farmers. The Ministry of Cooperation claims that the member cooperative societies of BBSSL, NCEL, and NCOL benefit from access to quality, certified, and affordable seeds; assistance in quality testing and certification; access to national and international markets; better price realisation for their produce; and dividends ontheir shareholding. It is equally important to strengthen organic certification for produce grown in the region’s hills and mountains so that growers can benefit from premium prices that high-end consumers in both domestic and global markets are willing to pay, provided the authenticity of the organic claim is duly certified. If hill farmers become entirely reliant on highly standardised seeds to meet modern market demands, it could jeopardise efforts to enhance organic certification. This situation calls for providing more funds for conducting research on improving the quality of traditional seeds to raise better crops and document and improve seed preservation knowledge and technologies, along with the introduction of the standardised seeds to boost production. The draft Seeds Bill, 2025, which is currently in the pre-legislative consultative stage, giving exemption to all traditional seeds of the region from the blanket ban on selling unregistered seeds proposed in the legislation, remains critical to ensure a fair deal to indigenous seed growers under the proposed regulatory regime. The promotion of standardised seeds must not come at the cost of weakening climate-resilient hill farming systems.