The unpredictability of weather patterns due to global climate change poses many challenges to farmers without a doubt. There is no specific calendar of agronomic operations that may insure success. I think that the most viable approach to cope with these challenges is to rely on biodiversity at different levels. For example: planting seed in the same field of a certain crop but with a wide genetic variability given by a diversity of varieties, rather than a single one. Therefore rely on landrace varieties, rather than hybrids or GMOs. On a farm scale diversify also the cultivation of more crops in a similar manner (many landrace varieties in the field where a certain species is grown). Increase the diversity of the soil biota as well. This can be accomplished through a rotation of crops and more sustainable practices such as: green manuring, or cover cropping. The residues of these crops in the soil are diverse and promote the diversification of the soil microflora and microfauna. If the soil living community is diverse, this will benefit the resiliency of the crops that are cultivated in it. Check out also the work of Salvatore Ceccarelli on RG as his conception of evolutionary breeding has been giving wonderful results in the middle-east region.

Dear Bruno Borsari, many thanks for your relevant suggestions. Smallholder farmers in our intervention area are already using most of those practices with diverse levels of satisfaction. I am sure, we will come back to these and see how their improvements could help farmers to cope with climate changes. Thanks as well for suggested references. However, I doubt the applicability of these biodiversity based practices in commercial agriculture. Do you think there is a way large farmers could benefit from this biodiversity based approach?

Dear Jean, Redefining a suitable scale of agricultural production will be necessary to cope with the challenges posed by global climate change. The monoculture model that has been professed as the viable one to make farming productive and effective in its economics is (in my opinion) losing ground under the climate change circumstances. However, I think that all farmers (including Large-scale farmers) will benefit by increasing biodiversity on their farms. The problem is to persuade the economy of agriculture to understand the complexity of farming systems and thus move a few steps forward, in support of a type of agriculture that is more ecological. Finding a better balance between economy and ecology is necessary to insure the sustainability of the farming enterprise.

Fine. To prepare a cropping calendar, the following data are essential

1) Rainfall period if its rain dependant farming. If not the water availability status and its supply period.

2) The crop selection based on the soil type present

3) calculating total water potential and preparing irrigation requirement based crop water requirement for each crop

4) Length of growing season based on the weather pattern in the region and general climatic conditions

The above are my humble suggestions.

In our country we prepare CROPPING PATTERN for larger areas; CROPPING SYSTEM for farms and only CROP CALENDER for specific crops grown and it may have datewise information about various field operations viz., fertiliser application, irrigation, weeding, protection if any, harvesting to be done from the date of sowing.

Thank you and it may be useful

Dear Pillai,

Many thanks for useful contributions.

Dear Dr. S.C. Pillai, would it be possible to share with me a copy of cropping calendar for rainfed agriculture in your area? It will surely inspire me.

Dear Dr. S.C. Pillai,

Does this single calendar fits microenvironments within that larger area? Does it work properly when crops are intercropped. Does it require any adjustment in any of these scenarios?

Dear JM Mubalama

Cropping calendar is done for a farm/ small area only by considering the soil and climatic conditions of the that farm / small area. It includes the microclimate. For a larger area, one can sub divide that total area into smaller farms based on the microclimate, soil type and also water potential and draw the cropping calendar for each subdivision.

Dear Dr. Bruno Borsari, your former comments made me realised that you are an advocate and expert on agroecology. Could you please share experience with me on how to assess the effectiveness of agroecology in a given area? How to assess the smallholder farmers knowledge or awareness on agroecology? This will facilite us the identification of entry points for intervention to promote agroecology practices in our area.

To have enough data on climate in the region and in the specific microsites during at lest 10 years to be analyzed.

To use all that nature potential offers in the region for water management, irrigation for example.

Soils depending of their components and farmers to apply at right time the cropping.

Dear Jean Mondo Mubalama,

Assessing the effectiveness of agroecology in a specific area, or farmers' knowledge/awareness of agroecology can be conducted through a mixture of quantitative and qualitative methods, which are typical of assessment. The quantitative data could derive from measurement collected directly on the farm such as: crop yield, percentage of SOM, crops diversity index, soil erosion, water use, energy consumption, and more (including socio-economic variables). Whether or not farmers know about agroecology can be evaluated through: surveys, interviews, focus groups, need assessment studies. There is a vast body of literature in agroecology that you can find on RG if you consult the website of the following researchers: Miguel Altieri, Clara Nichols, Peter Rosset, Steven Gliessman, Fernando Funez-Monzote. These are few of the names that come to my mind right now however, this could be a start. I am not aware of many works from African countries yet the attached book is a collection of papers from African researchers on the theme of food production and climate change, which I think should be of great interest to you. I hope it is and I wish you success with your work.