Farmers allege regional discrimination in sugarcane pricing in Karnataka

The Karnataka Pranta Raitha Sangha and Karnataka Sugarcane Farmers’ Association have alleged regional discrimination in sugarcane pricing in the State. They have demanded a uniform pricing mechanism to benefit cultivators.

Addressing media persons in Mysuru on November 26, the office-bearers of the two organizations demanded that the price for sugarcane should be fixed at ₹3,200 per ton minus the cost of harvesting and transportation, or ₹4000 per ton, including harvesting and transportation cost.

The associations also demanded scrapping of the sugar recovery criteria in pricing fixation.

Jagadish Surya, district secretary of KPRS, said sugarcane farmers in southern Karnataka region were being denied the price fixed by the State Government as a result of which farmers in Mysuru-Mandya-Chamarajanagar and surrounding regions were incurring a loss of around ₹1,000 per ton.

‘’When the struggle of sugarcane growers intensified in Karnataka, the State Government intervened and fixed the price at ₹3,200 to ₹3,300 per ton of sugarcane after deducting the cost of harvesting and transportation.

“But the benefit of this pricing mechanism is being denied by sugar factories in southern Karnataka region who were deducting harvesting and transportation charges out of ₹3,200 to ₹3,300 fixed per ton.”

The farmers urged the government to take a strong stance against this practice of the sugar mills.

The KPRS also questioned linking Fair and Remunerative Price (FRP) for sugarcane to sugar recovery. It said the rate of sugar recovery has been increased over the last few decades from 8.5% till 2000 to 10.25% in 2022.

‘’Such increases hurt farmers financially because most sugarcane varieties grown in the State do not yield uniformly high recovery. As a result, every one-percentage-point hike in the recovery norm effectively reduces the price realized by farmers by about ₹346 per tonne’’, said Jagadish Surya.

Pointing out that the cost of cultivating sugarcane was increasing all over India, the farmers sought FRP to reflect this increase in cost and to be in line with prevailing prices in different parts of the country.

Farmers in Haryana and Punjab receive more than ₹4,000 per ton of sugarcane while in Gujarat, it varied from ₹4,000 per ton to ₹6,000 per ton depending on the variety while in  Maharashtra, it has been fixed at ₹3,650, according to the KPRS and KSFA.

But in southern Karnataka districts like Mandya, Mysuru, Chamarajanagar, and Hassan, the sugarcane growers are being treated very unfairly, said KPRS and KSFA which said that the farmers in these regions were bearing the cost of harvesting and transportation which was between ₹900 and ₹1,300, and thus incurring a loss.

The farmers also urged the government to open laboratories in different districts to enable farmers to test the sugar recovery rate, and sought a share in profit from sugarcane byproducts.