50 | SMALLHOLDER DIARIES CASE 3 COPING WITH INCOME VOLATILITY AND ANTICIPATING THE HUNGER SEASON: ALINA (MOZAMBIQUE) Smallholder ‰iaries households were able to reduce the volatility of their income, to a degree, through off-farm wor, but their struggles still tended to mirror the agricultural cycle­ €n the –o—ambiue sample, for example, house- holds earned little cash income from agricultural production and confronted most hardships in the months between the harvests, the period called the “hun- ger season­” £ut the hunger season was about more than „ust hunger, and was lined to a number of other environmental and nutritional factors that caused hardship­ €nformation was collected about hunger in the household and forgone medi- cal care­ Œhe results indicated that households did not experience notable increases in the incidence of household hunger between Žanuary and –arch ‘’…”, but that there was a mared increase in reported health problems and forgone medical attention (see igure ‘Ÿ)­ €n addition to being nown as the hunger season, Žanuary, ebruary, and –arch are also the rainiest months of the year and present a range of challenges that drive a vicious cycle (see igure ‘“)­ ƒess variety in the diet results in phys- ical weaness and susceptibility to sicness­ €n these months respondents reported suffering from bad digestion and constipation from eating cassava without much fiber or protein­ Some households still had something to eat in the hunger season, but the variety of their diets was lacing­ €nclement weather in the hunger season also means that there is less farm wor to do­ †onstruction pro„ects and other forms of manual labor tend to slow down, and there are fewer opportunities for casual wor­ €n addition, the roads often flood­ Œransportation in and out of villages taes much longer, and some- times the buses do not run at all­ Œhis limits access to marets and health clinics FIGURE 23: Mozambique Smallholder Diaries: Households that reported forgoing medical expenses (Percentage) 100% 90% 80% 70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0% JulAug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Needed a doctor or medicine, but went without Experienced hunger