With Tamil Nadu in the midst of a record paddy harvest, Chief Minister MK Stalin has written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi urging him to double the state’s rice procurement target from the existing 16 lakh metric tonnes to 32 lakh metric tonnes for the ongoing Kharif Marketing Season 2025-2026. The letter, written on Saturday, March 14, marks at least the second time Stalin has formally raised the issue with the Prime Minister, having previously written on November 11, 2025, with the same request.
The urgency behind the renewed appeal lies in the sheer scale of this season’s paddy arrivals. According to Stalin’s letter, procurement in Tamil Nadu has already surged from 24.17 lakh metric tonnes in the same period last year to 36.63 lakh metric tonnes so far this season a jump of over 50 per cent. Paddy is currently being procured at an average daily rate of approximately 50,000 metric tonnes. At this pace, the Chief Minister projects that total procurement will reach 47.50 lakh metric tonnes by the end of the Kharif season, which would translate into approximately 32 lakh metric tonnes of milled rice precisely double the current Union government-mandated ceiling.
“Paddy procurement is continuing at an average rate of about 50,000 metric tonnes per day. If the trend continues, the total procurement is expected to reach 47.50 lakh metric tonnes, which would result in the delivery of approximately 32 lakh metric tonnes of rice,” Stalin noted in the letter.
The procurement is being carried out jointly by the Tamil Nadu Civil Supplies Corporation (TNCSC) and the National Cooperative Consumers’ Federation of India (NCCF). Stalin has appealed to the Prime Minister to revise the procurement target on priority, to prevent a situation where farmers are left without buyers for their surplus produce a genuine risk when bumper harvests collide with rigid Central procurement ceilings.
The backdrop to this request is a bumper harvest across Tamil Nadu’s Cauvery delta districts, driven by favourable Northeast Monsoon conditions. The state government has opened a large number of direct procurement centres to meet the surge in paddy arrivals and has already disbursed thousands of crores to farmers this season.
The Centre’s procurement targets act as an important safeguard for farmers. Without a corresponding revision in the mandated ceiling, the state’s procurement agencies however willing are limited in how much rice they can formally absorb into the Central pool and transfer to the Food Corporation of India (FCI) for distribution. If the ceiling is not raised to match actual production, a portion of the paddy surplus risks remaining outside the formal procurement net, potentially depressing farm prices and leaving growers in distress despite a record crop.
The letter also forms part of a broader pattern of Tamil Nadu raising concerns over Centre-state coordination in agricultural policy, including pending moisture content relaxation orders and logistics issues at procurement centres that were flagged in previous correspondence.
With Tamil Nadu’s assembly elections on the horizon, the outcome of this appeal carries political as well as agricultural significance and the state’s farming community, which sweeps across the Cauvery, Vaigai, and Tamiraparani belts, will be watching the Centre’s response closely.
