The Tamil Nadu Civil Supplies Corporation Ltd. made a beginning in the field of local procurement of paddy and rice from Samba 1973 through levy and direct purchases. It procured a quantity of 4,941 Rice Tonnes during the financial year out of a total quantity of 27,709 Rice Tonnes procured on behalf of Government of Tamil Nadu during Samba 1973. There are two main seasons for procuring paddy in Tamil Nadu.

• Kuruvai: 1 st October to 15 th December.
• Samba: 16 th December to 31 st July.

The procurement operation which commenced from Samba 1973 continued thereafter under various systems like monopoly procurement, parallel procurement, levy system, etc., upto 30-09-2002 either individually or in combination depending upon the circumstances at various point of time.

From 01-10-2002 Government of Tamil Nadu has adopted Decentralised system of procurement as per the Minimum Support Price and uniform specification fixed by the Government of India. The Corporation has become the sole agency of procurement on behalf of Food Corporation of India and the paddy procured is hulled through its own Modern Rice Mills and private hullers. The custom milled rice is adjusted against the central pool allotment made to the State by Government of India. The system of procurement in Tamil Nadu was made strictly by the Corporation from the farmers without involving any intermediaries by opening larger number of Direct Purchase Centres in various villages with the substantial quantity of procurement still used to come from the Cauvery delta area. The procurement in other potential districts is also being encouraged by the Corporation and the State Government. The Corporation is having 23 Modern Rice Mills mostly concentrated in the Cauvery delta areas and the paddy procured is hulled through these mills and also through the private Hulling Agents enrolled by the Corporation.

After the introduction of Decentralised Procurement the quantity of paddy procured is as below:.

S. No	Khariff Marketing Season	No. of D.P.Cs.	Quantity procured in Lakh M.Ts.
1	2002 -2003	347	1.59
2	2003 - 2004	571	3.10
3	2004 - 2005	1,012	9.73
4	2005 - 2006	1,150	13.82
5	2007 - 2008	1,298	14.49
6	2008 - 2009	1,300	17.93
7	2009 - 2010	1,364	18.63
8	2010 - 2011	1,503	23.10
9	2011-2012	1.657	23.87
10	2012-2013	1,155	7.18
11	2013-2014	1,486	10.20
12	2014-2015	1,722	15.80
13	2015-2016 (till 19.09.16)	1,808	17.75

During the current Kharif Marketing Season 2011-2012, a maximum of 1,621 Direct Purchase  Centres were opened and 21.10 Lakh metric tonnes of paddy has neen procured as on 31.03.2012. 26 Lakh metric tonnes of paddy procurement has been fixed as target during this Kharif season. The details of minimum support price fixed by the Government and the incentive to farmers announced by the Government of Tamil Nadu are as under :

S. No	VARIETY	Minimum Support Price (Per Quintal)	Incentive (Per Quintal)	Total
1	Paddy Common	Rs. 1,080/-	Rs. 50/-	Rs. 1,130/-
2	Paddy Grade A	Rs. 1,110/-	Rs. 70/-	Rs. 1,180/-

• SPECIFICATION OF PADDY AND CUSTOM MILLED RICE

The Tamil Nadu Civil Supplies Corporation is procuring paddy in the Cauvery Delta Regions under Decentralised procurement scheme from 2002 and adopting the specifications prescribed by the Government of India. The specifications prescribed by Government of India for this current KMS 2010-11 are given below :

S. No	Refraction	Maximum Limits
1	Foreign Matter   a) Organic   b) In-Organic	1.0 1.0
2	Damaged,Discoloured, Sprouted and weevilled grains	5.0*
3	Immature,Shrunken and Shrivelled grains	3.0
4	Admixture of lower class	6.0
5	Moisture content	17.0

^* Damaged Sprouted and weevilled grains should not exceed 4%.

The Government of India have relaxed the Moisture Content upto 20% and Discoloured, Damaged and Sprouted grains upto 5 % with full value cut for Thiruvarur, Thanjavur and Nagai Region

• UNIFORM SPECIFICATION FOR RICE

Sl. No.	Refraction	Maximum limit (%)	Grade A
1.	Brokens* Raw Parboiled / Single parboiled rice	25.0 16.0	25.0 16.0
2.	Foreign Matter** Raw / Parboiled Single parboiled rice	0.5	0.5
3.	Damaged #/ Slightly Damaged grains.     Raw     Parboiled	3.0 4.0	3.0 4.0
4.	Brokens Discoloured grains     Raw     Parboiled	3.0 5.0	3.0 5.0
5.	Chaky Grains     Raw	5.0	5.0
6.	Red Grains     Raw / Parboiled	3.0	3.0
7.	Admixture of lower class     Raw / Parboiled	6.0	----
8.	Dehusked grains     Raw / Parboiled	13.0	13.0
9.	Moisture content ***     Raw / Parboiled	14.0	14.0

^*Including 1% small brokens

^** Not more than 0.25% by weight shall be mineral matter and not more than 0.10% be impurities of animal origin. Including pin point damaged grains

^# including pin point damaged values

^*** Rice (both Raw and Parboiled) can be procured with moisture content upto a maximum  limit of 15% with value cut.  There will be no value cut upto 14%.be impurities of animal origin.

Between 14% to 15% moisture, value cut will be applicable at the rate of full value.