Unsatisfactory minimum fixed price of sugarcane has also discouraged many farmers from cultivating the crop. "The advantage of sugarcane cultivation lies in the fact that it gives us an assured market and promises us that prices will not drop sharply . But many companies do not give us the whole fixed price, which is what prompted me to set up my own sugar crushing factory and sell sugar in the market instead of cane," says Karuppusamy, a farmer from Sathyamangalam.