CHENNAI: Chief Minister MK Stalin on Tuesday urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is on a visit to Coimbatore today, to allow Tamil Nadu to increase the paddy procurement target for the Kharif season and relax the moisture norms for purchasing the foodgrain.
In a release, the government said the key demands made by the CM in his letter to the PM included immediate approval for increasing the moisture limit for procuring paddy from 17% to 22% and permitting Tamil Nadu to increase the paddy procurement target from 16 lakh tonnes fixed by the centre to the actual quantity of paddy bought from farmers by the state during the Kharif Marketing Season of 2025-2026.
The CM also sought relaxation of norms for testing of samples for fortified rice which is hindering the movement of milled rice.
Stating that as of November 16, paddy procurement has increased to 14.11 lakh tonnes in the current year when compared to 4.81 lakh tonnes in 2024–2025, Stalin said that Tamil Nadu has significantly expanded paddy procurement by operating 1,932 direct procurement centres (DPCs) and buying 14.11 lakh metric tonnes of paddy from 1,86,674 farmers for Rs 3,559 crore, compared to 4.83 lakh tonnes bought through 1,095 centres for the same period last year.
Order on easing moisture norms for procuring paddy not issued yet, says Stalin
Stalin said the state is expecting the marketable surplus of paddy to be 98.25 lakh tonnes (66.81 lakh tonnes of rice) during the current year’s procurement season up to August 31, 2026.
The CM said that despite field visits by three central teams in the last week of October, no order on relaxing the moisture content for paddy procurement has been issued so far. Since the Kharif (Kuruvai) procurement is still under way, and the NE monsoon will intensify again, the CM has urged that the order on relaxation of moisture norm must be issued without delay to ensure that farmers are not affected.
Recalling the delay in the supply of fortified rice due to the time taken for lab tests, the CM said more fortified rice kernels (FRK) will be needed for milling and moving the procured paddy as fortified rice and for effectively managing the storage in warehouses before the samba cultivation season.
Hence, the CM requested increasing the FRK chipping limit from 25 kg to 50 kg and raising the batch sample size from 10 MT to 25 MT to reduce samples and cut testing time to seven days. He also sought that FCI officials and southern labs be authorised to conduct sampling and testing.