Seasonality, Rural Livelihoods and Development

Stephen Devereux holds a doctorate in economics from Oxford University and has worked for over 20 years on food security, seasonality, famine and social protection. He is a Research Fellow at the Institute of Development Studies, based at the University of Sussex, UK.

Seasonality is a severe constraint to sustainable rural livelihoods, and extremes in weather have consequences for agriculture, employment, food supply and the spread of disease, particularly for developing countries. This book is a systematic study which aims to revive interest and awareness of this crucial but neglected issue, especially as climate change and development affect the world.

Foreword 1. Editorial Introduction 2. Seasonal Poverty: Integrated, Overlooked and Therefore Opportunity 3. What Happened to the Seasons? Farmers' Perceptions and Meteorological Observations of Changing Seasonality 4. Seasonal Hunger, the 2001-03 Famine and the Dynamics of HIV in Malawi 5. Why Risk Management has Trouble Locating Seasonality 6. Conceptualising Seasonal Financial Market Failures in Rural Household Models 7. Investigating Seasonality and Poverty: The 2004/05 Malawi Integrated Household Survey 8. Month of Birth and Children's Health in India 9. Seasonal Dimensions of Household Wellbeing and Labour Migration in Rural Southern China 10. Off-farm Work in the Peruvian Altiplano: Seasonal and Geographic Considerations for Agricultural and Development Policies 11. The Stabilising Effect of Irrigation on Seasonal Expenditure: Evidence from Rural Andhra Pradesh 12. Food Affordability: Dealing with Seasonal Variation of Purchasing Power 13. Water-Bound Geographies of Seasonality: Investigating Seasonality, Water, and Wealth in Ethiopia through the Household Water Economy Approach 14. Livelihoods Impact Analysis and Seasonality in Ethiopia 15. Modelling Seasonality in the Household Economy Approach and for Individual Households 16. How Planning for Seasonality can Reduce Extreme Poverty: Lessons from the Chars Livelihoods Programme, Bangladesh 17. Seasonality and Access to Education in Sub-Saharan Africa