In a statement, Anbumani said the state government had increased its incentive for ordinary variety paddy procurement price to Rs 2,600, while the price for fine variety had been increased to Rs 2,750. He said more than 95 per cent of the paddy procured by the government belonged to the ordinary variety and therefore the incentive for it should have been increased substantially.

He said the Centre had fixed the minimum support price at Rs 2,441 per quintal for the ordinary variety and Rs 2,461 per quintal for the fine variety for the current season. During the previous DMK regime, Tamil Nadu provided incentives of Rs 131 and Rs 156 per quintal for the two varieties, respectively.

According to Anbumani, the present government had increased the incentive to Rs 159 for the ordinary variety and Rs 289 for the fine variety. He argued that the higher incentive for fine variety would benefit only a small section of farmers, while the majority cultivating ordinary paddy would receive only a marginal increase.

Comparing Tamil Nadu with other states, Anbumani said Odisha had provided an incentive of Rs 800 per quintal last year, while Kerala had offered Rs 650 per quintal. He said Tamil Nadu's incentive was inadequate compared with those of these states.

Anbumani said the production cost of one quintal of paddy in Tamil Nadu ranged between Rs 2,300 and Rs 2,400. Fixing the procurement price by adding only around Rs 200 to the production cost was not justified, he said.

He demanded that the state government increase the incentive for ordinary paddy to Rs 559 per quintal so that farmers would receive Rs 3,000 per quintal this year. He also urged the government to fulfil its electoral promise and increase the procurement price to Rs 3,500 per quintal next year.

On sugarcane, Anbumani said the Centre had fixed the procurement price at Rs 3,290.50 per tonne for the 2025-26 crushing season, while the Tamil Nadu government had announced an incentive of Rs 709.50, taking the effective price to Rs 4,000 per tonne.