A central team of officials visited Tamil Nadu amid requests to lower the moisture content standards for paddy procurement left for Delhi Yesterday. The officials, split into three teams, visited Trichy, Thanjavur, Nagapattinam, Mayiladuthurai, Ramanathapuram and Tiruvarur to assess the harvested paddy grains.

The teams also took samples of Grade A and common varieties of Paddy and dispatched them to the FCI laboratory. Representatives of various farmers’ unions met the teams and urged the Centre to relax the moisture norms unconditionally and announce a procurement policy for the State.

They also requested a lab in the Delta region to test samples to make fortified rice. State Minister for Food and Civil Supplies, R.Sakkarapani, said that Tamil Nadu had procured 11.21 lakh tonnes of paddy during the current Kuruvai season and paid Rs. .2709 Crore to 1.45 lakh farmers for the produce.

He said that procurement and transportation were carried out swiftly at 1872 direct procurement centres functioning across the State, resulting in purchases of more than 30 thousand tonnes of paddy everyday, particularly from the Cauvery delta districts.