Stalin Writes to PM on Increasing Paddy Procurement

Chennai: Placing a slew of demands on behalf of the farmers of the State before Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is scheduled to visit the State on Wednesday, Chief Minister M K Stalin wanted a revision of the procurement target of 16 lakh MT rice fixed for the current Kharif season to the actual production and procurement levels at the end of the season.

In a letter to the Prime Minister on Tuesday, Stalin also urgently wanted orders to be passed by the Union Government for relaxing the moisture content of the procured rice from 17 percent to 22 percent and increasing the packing size of fortified rice kernels to 50 kilograms and that of the sample to 25 MT from the present 10 MT.

The Chief Minister said that Tamil Nadu had recorded a bumper harvest this Kharif season in view of the North East Monsoon and it had led to a record in paddy procurement that went from 4.81 lakh metric tons in 2024-25 to 14.11 metric tons the current year.

In view of the bumper harvest, particularly in the Cauvery delta region, Stalin wanted the procurement target to be raised and necessary orders issued immediately. He pointed out that though a team from the Union Government visited the State on October 25 to assess the moisture content of the grains, no orders had been issued by the Department of Food and Public Distribution (DFPD) and wanted them to be passed immediately.

He said that procurement was carried out through 1,932 direct paddy procurement centres from 1,86,674 farmers, to whom Rs 3,559 crore had been disbursed this year. Last year, the 4.83 MT of paddy was procured through 1,095 procurement centres.

The surplus paddy that would be available for sale till August 2026 was expected to be 98.25 lakh MT and in terms of rice it would be 66.81 lakh MT. Stalin’s letter assumes significance in the context of the Prime Minister’s visit to Coimbatore on Wednesday. Modi is scheduled to inaugurate the South Indian Natural Farming Summit in Coimbatore.