Kolhapur cane growers rally for Rs 4,500 a tonne first payment

Sugarcane growers in Kolhapur district of Maharashtra took to the roads on Sunday, 25 October 2026, demanding that sugar mills pay them Rs 4,500 a tonne as the first instalment for cane supplied this season. The Swabhimani Shetkari Sanghatana, the farmers' organisation led by Raju Shetti, ran a motorcycle rally of about 185 km through five talukas, starting outside the tehsildar's office at Hatkanangale and ending with a public meeting at Kasba Sangaon in Kagal taluka. At that meeting, the organisation gave mill managements and the district administration four days to agree on the payment terms and announce them.

Kolhapur and the rest of western Maharashtra form one of India's densest sugar belts, with a large number of cooperative mills owned by the growers who supply them. Every year, before the mills run at full speed, farmer groups and mill managements bargain over the "first instalment", the amount a mill pays on delivery of cane before the season's final accounts are settled. That first payment matters more to a grower's cash flow than the final rate, because it arrives when loans for fertiliser, labour and transport fall due.

The law sets only a floor. The fair and remunerative price is fixed by the Centre for the whole country and rises or falls with the sugar recovery of each mill. At the 2026-27 FRP of Rs 3,650 a tonne for a 10.25% recovery, a mill in a high-recovery area such as Kolhapur is already required to pay more than that base figure. The Swabhimani Shetkari Sanghatana's demand of Rs 4,500 a tonne as an upfront payment is a negotiating position well above that floor, and it is the figure the organisation now wants every mill in the district to match.

The timing is pressure on the mills. Crushing has started slowly in western Maharashtra, where the agitation has been strongest, and every week of delay shortens a season that the industry expects to last about 90 to 100 days. Mills need steady cane supply to run economically, while farmers fear that cane left standing loses weight and sugar content. The four-day deadline therefore sets up a short test of who blinks first.

The dispute also connects to national policy. Shetti has asked the Maharashtra government to make mills announce their 2026-27 cane prices promptly, and has pressed for a higher minimum selling price for sugar. He has said Union Food Minister Prahlad Joshi assured farmer organisations that a committee would take a decision on revising that minimum selling price before 20 November. A higher selling price for sugar would give mills more room to pay growers.

Short-term: Crushing in Kolhapur and nearby districts could stay slow until mills announce a first-instalment rate that the organisation accepts. Growers who follow the call to hold cane in the fields face a trade-off between a better price and the risk of drying cane.

Long-term: Whatever rate Kolhapur's mills settle on will shape grower incomes across the district for the season. A higher first payment raises mills' working-capital needs, which in turn depends on bank credit and on sugar and ethanol prices.

Who is affected: Sugarcane growers and harvest workers in western Maharashtra, cooperative and private sugar mills, transporters who move cane, and, through the national debate on sugar prices, consumers and the ethanol programme.

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