What is a planting window?

It is a period in which a farmer plants his or her crop in order to achieve maximum productivity. Let me turn to a live example. For Monze district our statistical analysis used data from 1921 to 2003 collected from the meteorological station at Moorings. The average date of the start of rains throughout these years was found to be 26th November. A planting window was therefore defined as 15th November to 15th December. This means that you should plant your crops within this window but make sure that 20 mm of rains fall within the next three days. If not, you may have to replant.

It does not mean that you cannot plant before 15th November. You may do so but you will have a greater risk that it does not rain sufficiently in the days that follow to ensure a good germination rate for your crop. Thus, it will only be advisable for you to do so if there has been a lot of rain, perhaps more than 40m, or if you know that a particular crop variety is able to withstand long dry spell. Indeed, there is nothing wrong in you taking a chance, as long as you understand that you may have to bear the consequences of a long dry spell.

Planting within the planting window does not mean that nothing will ever go wrong. Sometimes it may, because the seasonal patterns in rainfall are never the same from year to year. But you will be minimising the risk of something going wrong. Again it does not mean that you cannot plant after the 15th December. But you must be sure that the particular crop variety that you are planting will reach maturity by the end of the growing season.