Pune-Bengaluru highway blocked by sugarcane farmers

Farmers sit on the Pune-Bengaluru National Highway near Hattaragi village in Karnataka’s Belagavi district on October 13, 2026. They are demanding higher MSP for sugar and higher FRP for sugarcane. | Photo credit: BADIGER PK

Sugarcane growers in Karnataka launched a protest for higher prices by blocking the Pune-Bengaluru National Highway at Hirebagevadi and Hattaragi in Belagavi district on Tuesday.

Their demands include revision of minimum support price of sugar to ₹60 per kg, increase in fair and remunerative price to ₹5,500 per tonne of sugarcane, transparency in weighing and yield assessment in factories, increased procurement of ethanol produced in Karnataka from sugarcane and maize and differential sugar prices for domestic and industrial consumers.

Their other demands include a law ordering public, cooperative and private sugar mills to treat farmers as shareholders and share the profits the mills make from the sale of sugar, molasses, ethanol, co-generated power, oxygen, bio-fertilizers, press mud and other by-products, a government-supervised establishment and monitoring of computerized weighing scales, and a nationwide sugarcane felling and transportation calendar.

Groups of farmers walked for miles, stopping all the vehicles behind them. All heavy vehicles were stopped. After service roads, two-wheelers and cars were allowed to be used in case of an emergency.

Farmers slept on the road and shouted slogans against the Union Government. They said Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Food Minister Pralhad Joshi did not have farmers’ interests in mind while making policies. They demanded Mr. Joshi’s resignation, saying he had insulted the farmers’ leaders by inviting them to New Delhi for a meeting and not listening to their grievances.

Sugarcane growers staged a ‘rasta roko’ strike on the Pune-Bengaluru NH at Hire Bagewadi in Belagavi district on October 13, 2026. Their demands include an increase in the minimum selling price of sugar and a fair and profitable price for sugarcane. 📹: Badiger PK https://t.co/wxD0Jw5fLD

— The Hindu-Bengaluru (@THBengaluru) October 13, 2026

Some farmers performed “Urulu Seve” by rolling down the road. Some carried whips and brooms and shouted slogans in favor of farmers’ unity and against the Union Government.

Farmers have set up a protest tent next to the highway where people traveling from distant places gather. They are served water, tea and rotti-bhaji in the tent. They parked wagons and tractors at the toll booth

Police deployment at toll plazas at two locations has been strengthened.

Published – 13 Oct 2026 14:53 IST