HUBBALLI: Union Minister for Food, Public Distribution and Consumer Affairs, and New and Renewable Energy Pralhad Joshi lashed out at Chief Minister Siddarmaiah for pointing fingers at the Union government over the sugarcane growers’ crisis in the state, not visiting the farmers and allowing the agitation to go for over a week.
Joshi questioned Siddaramaiah’s analogy on fixing Fair and Remunerative Price (FRP) for sugarcane, and noted that the Central government fixed FRP for all sugarcane-growing states at Rs 355 per quintal for the 2025-26 season, which represents a margin of 105.2 per cent over cost of production.
He told the media in Dharwad on Saturday, “The FRP fixed by the Union government is the same across all states. In that case, why are farmers in other states getting higher prices? Other state governments are offering additional prices to their farmers.”
Over the past decade, the Union government increased FRP for sugarcane from Rs 210 to Rs 355 per quintal. The total amount of sugarcane purchased from farmers was Rs 57,104 crore in 2014, and it has almost doubled to Rs 1.02 lakh crore in 2025, the minister said.
Joshi pointed out that in states like Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab and others, strict and systematic enforcement measures have been implemented. If any sugar factory fails to pay FRP to farmers for any reason, the State governments release the pending FRP amount to farmers from their own funds.
In Maharashtra, under the Power Purchase Agreement system, electricity is being purchased at Rs 4.88 per unit, with an additional Rs 1.50 per unit added, totalling Rs 6 per unit being paid to farmers. But in Karnataka, the government has not yet entered into any purchase agreement. Moreover, last month, the State government imposed an energy cess of 60 paise per unit, he said.