A seed delivery mechanism for an agricultural planter that receives seeds from a seed meter of the planter and delivers the seeds to a seed trench as the planter moves in a planting direction has a first endless belt trained about a first drive pulley and a second endless belt trained about a second drive pulley. The first and second drive pulleys rotate the first and second endless belts to provide confronting belt segments that form a seed delivery path between a conveyor entry point and a release point. The first and second endless belts are configured with a downward reach oriented to move seeds predominantly downward and a rearward reach oriented to move the seed predominantly rearward. The rearward reach provides a rearward velocity component to seeds at the release point that offsets a forward velocity of the planter as the planter moves in the planting direction.