Participants at the Farmers’ Day convention setting fire to copies of the Centre’s three proposed legislations at Ilwala on the outskirts of Mysuru on December 23.
| Photo Credit: M.A. Sriram
Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha (KRRS), led by Badagalapura Nagendra, held a district-level convention to mark World Farmers’ Day and urge the Centre to rollback its three proposed “anti-farmer” legislations, at Ilwala on the outskirts of Mysuru on December 23.
The farmers, who set fire to copies of the three proposed legislations, also sent a memorandum to Prime Minister Narendra Modi through the Deputy Commissioner of Mysuru.
The memorandum urged the Centre to withdraw the draft Seeds Bill 2025 and the Electricity (Amendment) Bill 2025, besides the National Policy Framework on Agricultural Marketing.
The memorandum described the three pieces of proposed legislations as not only as “anti-farmer”, but also as “black farm laws”.
It also urged the Centre to enact a law guaranteeing Minimum Support Price (MSP) to all agricultural produce in accordance with the recommendations of M.S. Swaminathan to fix the MSP at a comprehensive cost of production plus 50%.
The KRRS urged the Centre to fulfill all the demands raised by farmers during the historic Delhi farmers’ agitation.
The farmers’ outfit also prevailed upon the Union government to not only desist from entering the Indo-US trade agreement, but immediately stop imports of maize, sugar, milk by-products, cotton and edible oils. The trade agreement and the import of commodities threatened the interests of local farmers, KRRS stated.
The other demands put forth by the farmers’ body included waiver of the entire farm loan, with the Union and State governments sharing the burden equally. The KRRS also sought an end to the harassment of farmers by banks and lending institutions while also ensuring easy access to fresh loans for farmers.
The Centre was urged to provide a monthly pension of ₹5,000 to all farmers above the age of 60.
Meanwhile, the KRRS has urged the government to ensure an average price of ₹400 per kg for tobacco.
With regard to sugarcane, the farmers’ body has urged the Centre to fix a price of ₹5,000 per tonne based on a recovery rate of 9.5%.
Puttannaiah’s statue
Though the KRRS had planned to unveil the statue of late farmers’ leader Puttannaiah on Farmers’ Day, which also marks his birthday, the organisers said the programme had been pushed to February 2026.
According to Mr. Nagendra, the authorities, who had identified the land for the statue, have promised to hand over the land in the coming days.
Published – December 23, 2025 06:54 pm IST
