Shivakumar urges PM to address cane growers’ demands as agitation delays crushing season

Bengaluru: Chief Minister DK Shivakumar has written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking urgent intervention on five key issues facing sugarcane growers, including raising the minimum selling price (MSP) of sugar, fixing separate prices for domestic and commercial sugar, reviewing ethanol procurement norms and increasing the price of cane-based ethanol.

In a letter to the Prime Minister, Shivakumar said sugarcane farmers in North Karnataka have intensified their agitation, with padayatras and road blockades disrupting normal life and delaying the start of the crushing season. He said he met protesting farmers at Kittur in Belagavi district on October 17 and appealed to them to withdraw the agitation, but they maintained that their demands could be addressed only by the Centre.

The CM warned that the delay in crushing operations was hurting farmers as mature cane remained unharvested, leading to losses in weight and sugar recovery. He said continued protests were also affecting public order.


The state government has taken measures such as reforms to improve transparency in sugar mill weighbridges, the installation of digital load cells across all 81 operational mills, and regular inspections of sugar recovery and cane weight. He said average sugar recovery had increased from 9.91% in 2022-23 to 11.09% in 2025-26.

The state government had also provided an additional Rs 100 per tonne over the mills’ agreed cane price in 2025-26, bearing Rs 50 per tonne from its own funds, and disbursed around Rs 290 crore directly to farmers, he said.

Among the key demands raised with the Centre are revising the sugar MSP, unchanged at Rs 31 per kg since 2019 despite successive increases in the Fair and Remunerative Price (FRP) of sugarcane and introducing separate MSPs for retail and commercial sugar sales.

The CM also sought a review of the exclusion of ethanol produced from sugarcane juice, syrup and B-heavy molasses from the latest procurement tender issued by oil marketing companies. He further urged the Centre to revise cane-based ethanol prices and restore the FRP base recovery level to 9.5% from the existing 10.25%.

Shivakumar said an early decision by the Centre would help end the agitation and allow crushing operations to commence without further delay.