Seasonality and Agriculture in the Developing World: A Problem of the Poor and the Powerless

Recent years have seen a strong interest in the problem of seasonal variation in employment, income, nutrition, and sickness linked to agricultural output and food availability in rural areas of the Third World. This book takes an overall view of the seasonality problem. The first three chapters consider the importance of seasonality, explore its climatic and social roots, and examine the evidence of its impact on the disadvantaged. Ways in which environmental diversity can modify the effects of seasonality are then discussed along with the means by which societies have traditionally used such diversity for countering the challenge of seasonality. Special problems of developing countries in meeting this challenge are considered, and the implications for policy planning and rural development are examined.