Centre rejects TN's request to relax moisture norms for paddy procurement

The Centre has rejected Tamil Nadu's request to relax moisture norms for paddy saying procurement with high moisture content causes significant storage risk, Parliament was informed on Wednesday.

Minister of State for Food and Public Distribution Nimuben Jayantibhai Bambhaniya, in her written reply to the Lok Sabha, said the southern state had requested for relaxing the moisture norms for paddy from 17 per cent to 22 per cent.

However, the request of the Tamil Nadu government "has not been considered due to the following facts," she said.

Paddy can be dried before milling; procurement of excessively moist paddy introduces significant operational risk, including loss of stock during storage and compromised milling recovery.

 

The minister said paddy with high moisture content is susceptible in terms of rapid deterioration, fungal growth, discolouration, and infestation.

The state governments have been repeatedly advised to develop drainage facilities at the procurement stages.

"The relaxation in moisture content has no direct financial implication on farmers, therefore, such relaxation is no longer considered," the minister said.

The Centre has fixed paddy procurement target at 16 lakh tonnes (in terms of rice) from the kharif season of the 2025-26 crop year (July-June).

With respect to the easing of norms for sampling Fortified Rice Kernels (FRK), the Centre has revised the Fortified Rice Kernels (FRK) sample size from 10 tonnes to 21 tonnes and packaging size from 25 Kg to 50 Kg, she added.