Dr Michitaro Oka| is a Visiting Fellow at the LSE Asia Research Centre and Associate Professor at the School of Agriculture, Meiji University, Japan. Michitaro will present a paper titled Interlinked Credit and Labour Markets in Gujarat: The trustability of the institution of ‘Kayami’. The interlinkage of credit and labour markets is known to explain low agricultural wage rates. The study explores this by comparing two regions of Gujarat, based on fieldwork conducted for five months in 2005, that was spread across 60 villages. It observes the persistence of Kayami (the local term for tied or locked labour contract, which is a caste-based social institution) in the Central region and its relative absence in the Peninsula region. Archival material from the British colonial era is used to examine and understand the conditions that led to its emergence and why some villages have, and others do not have, Kayami. Using the case of a single village from the Central region it shows the demise of Kayami because of the growth of “trustable” non-farm job opportunities near the village. The importance of “trustability” in the collapse of Kayami is also discussed.

This study also discusses child labour issues which notably increased in the Peninsula region where Kayami did not exist. Thus, in the absence of other trustable alternatives, the existence of Kayami in the Central region might help to avoid labour market failures like child labour.

Dr Srijit Mishra| is the Subir Chowdhury Fellow 2013-14 at LSE Asia Research Centre and Associate Professor at the Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research (IGIDR), Mumbai. Srijit will present a paper titled Technology, Development and Farmers' Suicides in India: A misplaced debate. This paper points out that the popular discourse on farmers' suicides, which links it to either supporting or opposing Bt cotton, is misplaced. It either ignores, or at best subsumes, an understanding of the socio-economic aspects and public health concerns. In this context, while acknowledging that suicide is a complex and multifaceted phenomena, the study points out that farmers' suicides, and also agricultural indebtedness, are symptoms of a larger crisis that ails Indian agriculture. It concludes with suggestions for further research that could explore possible linkages with important global issues - food insecurity, climate change, and perhaps financial crisis.

A related concern with the above-mentioned discourse that this study points out is the usage and reporting of suicides data. It shows that some users do not normalise the incidences by population figures while some others normalise it in a manner that shows an inaccurate understanding of the Indian context. While appreciating the easy accessibility of published data in recent times, it is critical on the style of reporting and suggests improvements. The study provides updated estimates of suicide mortality rates for farmers and non-farmers across the states of India.

This talk will be followed by a film on GM Cotton that was prepared for the Open University by Evans Woolfe Media.

Dr Ruth Kattumuri| is Co-Director of the LSE Asia Research Centre and India Observatory.

Dr Tirthankar Roy is a Professor in the Department of Economic History, LSE.

Dr Laura Silici is a Researcher at the International Institute for Environment and Development.