Sugarcane growers across Karnataka were watching Belagavi on Monday, where Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar met farmer representatives and sugar mill owners at Suvarna Soudha to try to end weeks of unrest over cane prices. Farmer leaders had warned of a state-wide bandh, or shutdown, on 27 October if the talks did not produce a satisfactory result.
The meeting brought together four farmer representatives from each of the state's 15 sugarcane districts, district collectors, elected representatives and delegates from 81 sugar mills, according to local briefings reported by the trade outlet ChiniMandi. Union Minister Pralhad Joshi did not attend, reportedly at his own request that the state hold its meeting first before a separate Union-level discussion.
The dispute had been building since late September and turned in October into highway blockades in about ten districts, among them Belagavi, Bagalkot, Vijayapura, Kalaburagi, Mandya and Mysuru. Farmers blocked National Highway 48 near Belagavi toll plazas for more than a day and the Dharwad bypass for over 11 hours.
Farmer unions want Rs 5,500 a tonne for cane in the 2026-27 crushing season, which protest leaders in Belagavi break down as about Rs 4,500 from the mills and a Rs 1,000 top-up from the state. That is roughly 51 percent above the Fair and Remunerative Price of Rs 365 a quintal, or Rs 3,650 a tonne, which the Union Cabinet approved as the national floor for the season. The farmers also want a State Advised Price above the FRP, a higher minimum sale price for sugar, central purchase of ethanol made from Karnataka's cane juice and molasses, and an end to what they say are unfair weight deductions at mill weighbridges.
For the mills, such a price would sharply raise raw material costs just as crushing begins, and the risk is that cane intake slows if no deal is reached, leaving standing cane to deteriorate in the fields. Karnataka is one of India's main cane states, and India is among the world's largest sugar producers and exporters, so a long standoff at the start of the season is watched by sugar traders well beyond the state.
Photo: Timothy A. Gonsalves (sugarcane harvest in Mandya district, Karnataka) / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Source: Global Agriculture
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