TECHNOLOGICAL FORECASTING AND SOCIAL CHANGE 43, 215-239 (1993) The Adoption of Agricultural Innovations A Review GERSHON FEDER and DINA L. UMALI ABSTRACT This paper reviews the theoretical and empirical literature on the adoption of agricultural innovations during the last decade and the impact of policy interventions promoting technology adoption. The analysis of the final stage of the Green Revolution technology diffusion cycle reveals that the agroclimatic environment is the most significant determinant of locational differences in adoption rates. The linkage between micro-adoption and the aggregate diffusion process needs to be more firmly established to achieve a clearer understanding of diffusion patterns. Several studies showed that the impact of policy interventions to promote technology adoption depends on the type of technology, market structure, and the nature and duration of the policy intervention. Introduction The analysis of diffusion processes has been given significant attention by social scientists in the past few decades, because such processes are an important determinant of economic growth. Agricultural innovations have been of special interest in this context, because the decision makers in the agricultural case are typically individual households, rather than firms. Thus, household behavioral issues are hypothesized to be a key to understanding the observed processes. The Green Revolution from the 1960s to the early 1980s motivated numerous studies to explain the determinants of adoption during the early stages of the diffusion process. A clear distinction between recent works analyzing adoption and works in the 1970s and early 1980s relates to the evolution of the Green Revolution. By the early 199Os, most of the “first-wave” Green Revolution technologies had long attained or were close to the final stage of the diffusion cycle. Correspondingly, many recent studies focused on refining the underlying theory of agricultural technology adop- tion based on the completed diffusion cycle, from introduction to the adoption of the second wave of agricultural technologies, and the empirical testing of these theories, so as to draw new lessons and new directions for future development strategies. Feder et al. [l] conducted a comprehensive survey of the theoretical and empirical literature on the adoption of agricultural innovations; the majority of these studies focused on the initial stages of diffusion of Green Revolution technologies. This paper complements this work and surveys the various studies which have now mainly graduated to the analysis GERSHON FEDER and DINA L. UMALI are, respectively, Chief of and a consultant to the Agricultural Policies Division of the Agriculture and Rural Development Department of the World Bank. The views expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent policies or views of the World Bank. Address reprint requests to Dr. Gershon Feder, Agricultural Policies Division, Agriculture and Rural Devel- opment Department, The World Bank, 1818 H Street, N.W., Washington, DC 20433. 0 1993 Elsevier Science Publishing Co., Inc. 0040-1625/93/$6.00