The protest by sugarcane farmers in north Karnataka demanding higher prices for their crop entered its ninth day on Friday, November 7 even as tensions escalated on Wednesday evening when some protesters allegedly threw slippers at state Sugar Minister Shivanand Patil’s car in Belagavi.
Patil had visited the protest site in Gurlapur Cross, Mudalagi taluk, where farmers have been staging demonstrations for over a week. As he was leaving, a section of the crowd reportedly hurled slippers at his vehicle.
Speaking to the media, the minister appealed to the farmers to maintain calm. “I am here to make an appeal not to escalate the situation. The power to fix sugarcane prices does not lie with the state government, it is under the jurisdiction of the Union government,” Patil said.
He said that the Fair and Remunerative Price (FRP) for sugarcane is decided by the Union government and urged it to intervene. “The Union Minister for Sugar, who is also from our state, has not yet taken any initiative. The authority and responsibility to resolve this issue rests with the Union government,” he added.
The protest, which began in Belagavi, has now spread to other northern districts including Bagalkote, Vijayapura, and Haveri.
As the agitation grows, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has called a meeting on Friday with farmer leaders and representatives of sugar factories to find a resolution. On Thursday, he also wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking intervention in sugarcane pricing.
Farmers are demanding a higher price for sugarcane, arguing that the rate fixed by the Union government – Rs 3,550 per tonne for the 2025–26 season at a 10.25% sugar recovery rate – does not reflect their rising input costs. After deducting harvesting and transport (H&T) expenses of about Rs 800-900 per tonne, farmers say they are effectively left with Rs 2,600-3,000 per tonne, which they say is unviable.
They want a net payment of Rs 3,500 per tonne (after H&T deductions) as the minimum required to sustain cultivation, accusing mills of delaying dues or underpaying despite directives from local authorities.
What Siddaramaiah said in his letter to PM Modi
In his letter sent on Thursday, Siddaramaiah sought the Prime Minister’s approval for changes in pricing and payment mechanisms for sugarcane. He urged the Union government to:
Allow states to fix or endorse a net price for farmers after excluding H&T costs, or require mills to bear those costs
Recalibrate the sugar recovery rate used in calculating the FRP
Revise the Minimum Support Price (MSP) of sugar to above Rs 231 per kg to ease mills’ cash flow and enable timely payments
Permit limited sugar exports and increase ethanol procurement from sugarcane-based feedstock to stabilise the sector
Siddaramaiah said that the current FRP structure and stagnant MSP, along with export restrictions and slow ethanol offtake, had created a “policy bottleneck” that was hurting both farmers and mills. He also sought an urgent meeting with the Prime Minister to discuss these issues.
The state Cabinet discussed the issue at length on Thursday, following which Siddaramaiah appealed to the farmers to withdraw their protest and await Friday’s meeting outcomes. The government will hold separate discussions with farmers and factory owners to find a “viable and fair solution.”
Meanwhile, Union Minister Pralhad Joshi accused CM Siddaramaiah of “lying and indulging in petty politics,” stating that Karnataka’s ethanol allocation for 2025-26 stands at 116.31 crore litres, higher than what the CM claimed. Joshi said the FRP, fixed at Rs 3,636 per tonne based on a 10.5% recovery rate, is already in place, and urged the state government to resolve issues related to H&T deductions instead of blaming the Union government.