Institute for Money, Technology & Financial Inclusion

Final Report/Synopsis of Research Results: One of the most distinguishing features of third world countries is that they present a unique situation in which agriculture is often done by landless farmers. Fieldwork was conducted at Sikandarpur village in the Basti district of Uttar Pradesh, India, among 56 households. Farmers often work for the landowners in exchange for produce or money. They remain as tenant farmers and usually till patches of arable land generating enough produce that could suffice for their family. But sometimes, nature plays its tricks and these poor farmers lose whatever they had planned for. This paper tries to uncover how tobacco, which generates huge incomes for multinational companies, is a cause of monetary misery for the farmers.