Moisture in paddy: Tamil Nadu government’s request rejected – Central government responds in Lok Sabha

Tamil Nadu: The central government has rejected Tamil Nadu’s request to relax moisture requirements for paddy, citing the potential storage risk associated with purchasing paddy with high moisture content.

This information was provided by Minister of State for Food and Public Distribution Nimuphan Jayantibai Pambania in a written response to a question raised in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday.

Regarding this, she further stated in her response:

The Tamil Nadu government had requested that the moisture requirements for paddy be relaxed from 17% to 22%.

However, the Tamil Nadu government’s request was not considered due to the following reasons.

Although paddy can be browned before milling, purchasing paddy with excessive moisture content poses significant operational risks, including loss of stock during storage and difficulties in milling recovery.

Rice with high moisture content is prone to early spoilage, fungus, discoloration, and infection.

State governments have been repeatedly advised to create water drainage facilities at procurement sites.

The moisture relaxation will not have a direct financial impact on farmers. Therefore, such relaxation will not be considered further.

The Central Government has set a target for paddy procurement of 1.6 million tonnes for the Kharif season of crop year 2025-26 (July-June).

In his reply, the Minister said that regarding the relaxation in the sampling rules for Fortified Rice Grains (FRK), the Central Government has increased the sample size of Fortified Rice Grains (FRK) from 10 tonnes to 21 tonnes and the packaging size from 25 kg to 50 kg.