Bengaluru: Sugarcane farmers in Karnataka have warned of an intensified statewide agitation if the government fails to announce a State-Advised Price (SAP) with an additional incentive over the Centre’s Fair and Remunerative Price (FRP) by November 20.
Thousands of farmers, under the banner of the Karnataka Sugarcane Growers’ Coordination Committee, staged a protest at Freedom Park and submitted a memorandum to Sugar Minister Rudrappa Lamani.
Farmer leader Kuruburu Shanthakumar said the state should factor in sugar mills’ earnings from by-products while fixing the SAP. The farmers cited Tamil Nadu’s incentive of ₹709 per tonne and Punjab’s SAP of ₹4,480 per tonne. They also urged the Centre to fix the price at ₹4,500 per tonne, citing production costs of ₹4,440.
The protesters demanded that the sugar recovery benchmark be reduced from 10.25% to 9.5%, strict measures to prevent irregularities in weighing and recovery calculations, and a share in profits from ethanol production. They also sought a law mandating payment of sugarcane dues within 16 days.
Other demands included farm loan waivers, drought compensation of ₹25,000 per acre and withdrawal of police cases against protesting farmers. The committee also condemned the arrests of agitators during the ongoing sugarcane price agitation in Belagavi.
Lamani assured the farmers that he would take up the demands with the Chief Minister and convene a meeting with their representatives to discuss a resolution.