ABSTRACT
An overarching anxiety among peasant farmers concerns the unpredictable onset and cessation of the rainy season. A foreknowledge of the weather for an upcoming growing season can enable farmers to plan with greater confidence to forestall negative consequences of poor or late rains and exploit beneficial opportunities when more favourable weather is in the offing. Extended-range or seasonal weather forecasts are made for West Africa and are a potential tool that could be used to great advantage for adapting farm decisions to climate variability. Successful application of seasonal forecasts in farming would also increase resilience to climate change. But seasonal forecasts are little used by Nigerian farmers. The reasons for this include inadequacies of the forecasts themselves and also failures in the communication of forecasts to farmers.
