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Farmer adaptation to climatic variability is explored via an analysis of corn hybrid selection in southern Ontario. Corn hybrid varieties are available for a wide range of conditions, including accumulated heat, measured as Corn Heat Units (CHUS). Hybrids with higher CHU ratings generally have higher yields, so long as there is sufficient heat for them to mature. Farmers choose their hybrid varieties prior to the growing season, in the face of uncertainty about the CHUS that will accumulate at their location. Farmers in the sample counties showed a consistent tendency to adjust their hybrid selection on the basis of the previous year's growing conditions. After the high CHU year of 1991, farmers chose significantly more longer-maturing and potentially higher-yielding, but riskier varieties. After the lower cHu years of 1992 and 1993, farmers' hybrid selections became markedly more conservative.
L'etude de l'adaptation des fermiers aux changements climatiques se fait par une analyse de I'hybridation du ma's au sud de l'Ontario. Les varietes de may's hybrides conviennent a differentes conditions climatiques incluant la chaleur accumul*e, mesuree en Unitees de Chaleur de Mais (UCMS). Les hybrides ayant une valeur UCM plus 6levee donnent generalement un rendement plus eleve a condition qu'ils beneficient d'assez de chaleur pour murir. Les fermiers des comtes selectionn6s ont demontre une tendance persistante a baser leurs selections d'hybrides en fonction des conditions de croissance de l'annee precedente. Depuis 1991, annee ayant connu un taux eleve d'UCM, les fermiers ont opts pour un
type d'hybride a croissance prolongde, au potentiel de rendement plus elevemais egalement plus risque. Les annees 1992 et 1993 ayant connu un niveau UCM moins 6lev6, les fermiers ont alors selectionne des hybrides plus traditionnels.
Relationships between environmental conditions and human behaviour represent a long-standing theme in geography and have been explored via a rich variety of approaches and paradigms. In particular, the agricultural or farming sector, with its dependence on biological processes, is often analyzed relative to spatially and temporally variable resource endowments, including land and climate.
Public and policy interest in the implications of climate for agriculture has recently grown, largely as a result of two issues. The first relates to the recurring losses in production and income associated with extreme climatic events. In many parts of the...