Seasonal variation in agricultural production results in two sets of often interacting problems: unevenness in resource requirements and the flow of output. These problems are found in every type of agriculture – indeed in all seasonal industries – but their exact nature and extent, as well as the severity of their consequences, depends largely upon the farm setting. For the western farmer the first type of problem may imply an expensive piece of equipment like a combine harvester deteriorating as it lies idle for most of the year, while at other times it must work flat out, thus increasing the possibility of breakdown. At the other end of the spectrum a poor farmer or landless labourer in a developing country will be unemployed for much of the year while at other times he or she must work to the point of exhaustion. For the commercial farmer in the West, problems created by seasonality in the flow of farm produce translate into uneven cash flows or the additional costs of storage or processing. For the Third World subsistence farm family, the major problem is seasonal variation in food consumption. For the better-off family this may be qualitative only, provided a sufficiency of non-perishable foodstuffs can be stored to see them through from one harvest to the next. With poorer families, however, there is quantitative variation also, and a pre-harvest ‘hungry season’ when there is simply not enough food to go round.