CIAO DATE: 11/2009
October 2009
The timing of rain, and intra-seasonal rainfall patterns are critical to smallholder farmers in developing countries. Seasonality influences farmers' decisions about when to cultivate and sow and harvest and ultimately contributes to the success or failure of their crops. Farmers are reporting that both the timing of rainy seasons and the pattern of rains within seasons are changing. These perceptions of change are striking in that they are geographically widespread and because the changes are described in remarkably consistent terms.
Resource link: What Happened to the Seasons? Changing seasonality may be one of the major impacts of climate change [PDF] - 217K