- 8-


and the collection of articles in the 1964 Indian Journal of Agricultural

Economics. /

 The present article will attempt to review the available literature and to

 explore the conceptual and analytical issues involved in the relationship

 between subsistence levels of production, plus the usually associated subsistence

 levels of living, and the influence of risk and uncertainty factors upon the

adoption of new technology. In brief, the article is an attempt to provide a

more rigorous framework for analysing the frequent statement about farmers in

developing areas that "they are so close to minimal human survival that they

resist innovation and change." No attempt will be made to develop another new
 2/
 model of peasant economic behavior / or to present still another "Game
 3/
 Theoretic" framework of 'man against Nature.' 3 Rather the object of the

 exercise is to explore more fully the inherent meaning, elements, and dimensions

 of "subsistence" and survival as viewed by peasant farmers.

 Even though the remainder of the article will concentrate upon economic

 factors, it should be emphasized at the outset that economic factors are

 neither predominant nor exclusive in the adoption or nonadoption of new tech-

 nologies -- new seeds, new practices, new crop combinations, new inputs. Among

 farmers in the developing world.economic factors are important in the process

 of the diffusion of new innovations, but non-economic factors are often equally



 SIn preparing this paper, I regret that I have been as yet unable to obtain
 two theses which have come to my attention by Sipra Das Gupta and Judith Heyer
 dealing with certain aspects on risk in the context of Indian and East African
 agriculture respectively.
 2/
 SThe models to which I am most partial are Nakajima's [1969] and Krishna's
 [1969] since both try to take account of subsistence levels of living and
 minimal standards.
 3/
 /- The game theoretic framework has been frequently used for decision-making
 under conditions of uncertainty. For an excellent summary see Krishna and
 Desai (1964].