Seasonal agricultural calendars presenting activities per month for farmers in Malawi, April-May 2019

The dataset provides transcripts from focus groups in Salima, Mangochi and Zomba (Malawi). The focus groups' discussions focused on important monthly agricultural activities in association with the climate services and extreme weather events. This outlined how climatic factors affected agricultural decision-making. The data were produced as part of NERC Program Science for Humanitarian Emergencies and Resilience (SHEAR). Grant reference - Improving Preparedness to Agro-Climatic Extremes in Malawi (IPACE-Malawi). Between April and May 2019 15 focus group discussions (FGDs) were conducted across five Extension Planning Areas (EPAs); 10 FGDs with farmers and 5 FGDs with Agricultural Extension Development Officers (AEDOs). The farmers involved in the FGD were selected by the AEDOs and included both male and female farmers (and amongst which one or more than one was the lead farmer i.e., farmer representative). In total, 70 female farmers and 48 male farmers, and 21 AEDOs participated in the FGDs. The age of male farmer and female farmer participants ranged from 28–58 to 20–54, respectively. As part of the FGDs these seasonal calendars were used to guide the discussion. The FGDs were conducted in the local language Chichewa, facilitated by a local research assistant who audio recorded, translated and transcribed the discussions.