Investigating Seasonality and Poverty: The 2004/05 Malawi Integrated Household Survey The predominance of rain-fed agricultural cultivation in Malawi, makes income and consumption to be highly seasonal for more than 80 percent of the population that largely derive their livelihoods from agriculture. Seasonality of livelihoods for the poor is bound to affect their consumption at particular times of the year, and therefore may be an important determinant of poverty. This study estimates a model of determinants of poverty in Malawi which take into account the seasonality by exploiting household data collected over several months in 2004/05. The study finds that seasonal dummies are significant in explaining poverty in Malawi, suggesting that seasonality should not be ignored in the estimates of poverty and poverty estimates that do not control for seasonality may be biased.