18 November,2025 06:23 PM IST | New Delhi | mid-day online correspondent
PM Narendra Modi. File pic
Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi will visit Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu on Wednesday to participate in a series of programmes, including the Centenary Celebrations of Sri Sathya Sai Baba and the inauguration of the South India Natural Farming Summit.
According to an official statement issued by the Press Information Bureau, PM Modi will arrive in Puttaparthi, Andhra Pradesh, around 10 am, where he will visit Sri Sathya Sai Baba's Mahasamadhi to offer his respects. Around 10:30 am, he will take part in the centenary celebrations of Sri Sathya Sai Baba. On the occasion, PM Modi will release a commemorative coin and a set of postage stamps honouring the spiritual leader's life, teachings, and enduring legacy. He will also address the gathering.
Following the event, PM Modi will travel to Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu. Around 1.30 pm, he will inaugurate the South India Natural Farming Summit, organised by the Tamil Nadu Natural Farming Stakeholders Forum. During the programme, he will release the 21st instalment of the PM-KISAN scheme, amounting to more than Rs 18,000 crore. The fund is likely to benefit 9 crore farmers across India.
The South India Natural Farming Summit, which will go on till Friday, aims to promote sustainable, eco-friendly and chemical-free agricultural practices, while accelerating the adoption of natural and regenerative farming models across the region. The summit will highlight opportunities for farmer-producer organisations and rural entrepreneurs, focusing on market linkages, agro-processing, organic inputs, eco-friendly packaging, and indigenous agricultural innovations.
More than 50,000 participants, including farmers, natural farming practitioners, scientists, organic input suppliers, sellers, and stakeholders from Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, Kerala, Telangana, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, are expected to attend the event.
Allow TN to revise rice target for current kharif season, CM Stalin urges PM
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister (CM) MK Stalin on Tuesday urged Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi to issue orders permitting the state to revise the rice procurement target of 16 lakh metric tonnes (MT) for the 2025-26 kharif season, aligning it with actual production and procurement levels, news agency PTI reported.
In a letter to PM Modi, CM Stalin stated that although Central teams had assessed the moisture content on October 25, the department of food and public distribution was yet to issue orders relaxing the permissible moisture level from 17 per cent to 22 per cent.
"This needs to be done urgently," he said.
Stalin also requested that the existing 25-kg packing size of fortified rice kernels be allowed to be increased to 50 kg, and that the sample lot size be raised from 10 MT to 25 MT, PTI reported. These requests, he said, were "urgent in nature" and made "in the interest of the paddy farmers."
Pointing to a record harvest, he said that in Tamil Nadu, particularly in the Cauvery delta districts, paddy production had been significantly higher this kharif season. As on November 16, 2025, the state had procured 14.11 lakh metric tonnes of paddy, compared to 4.81 lakh MT during the same period in 2024-25 - the highest-ever procurement recorded during the kharif season in Tamil Nadu.
The state government had opened 1,932 direct paddy procurement centres and procured 14.11 lakh MT of paddy valued at Rs 3,559 crore from 1,86,674 farmers, PTI reported. In contrast, during the corresponding period last year, only 4.83 lakh MT was procured through 1,095 centres.
"Tamil Nadu has recorded a bumper harvest this year and in view of the Northeast Monsoon, I am making the following urgent requests to you. I hope you will consider them favourably ahead of your visit to Coimbatore (on Nov 19)," Stalin said in the letter.
(With PTI inputs)
