ABSTRACT
Time of planting is of paramount importance to traditional farmers, as it has such a considerable effect on plant yield. In extreme cases, it may mean the difference between abundance and famine. It is important for traditional farmers to plant on dates that ensure a steady supply of food during the year. In the arid and semi-arid tropics, the hot seasons may increase, reduce, or eliminate many pathogen and vector populations. Diseases can sometimes be avoided by planting at times of the year unfavorable for disease development. In the tropics there are far more opportunities to adjust planting dates to escape pathogens or pathogen vectors than in temperate regions, where fewer adjustments to planting dates can be made. Scheduling time of planting becomes highly complicated in multiple cropping systems and dooryard gardens. Traditional farmers' choice of planting dates is influenced by a variety of factors: biological, environmental, social, and economic.
