The moisture content is high during the early part of paddy harvest season, that starts from mid-November and pick up from mid-December.Traditionally, the Centre did not allow procurement of paddy having more than 17% of moisture content. In November last year, Union consumer protection minister Ram Vilas Paswan had indicated that the Centre would allow the procurement of paddy with 19% moisture content.As a result of it, the paddy procurement till January 2 this year has been 1.76 lakh metric tonne (MT) procured from 23,440 farmers.