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 Thus, the peasant farmer must compare the increased returns (greater

output times expected prices) against the increased costs (new required inputs

times known costs) before he is able to make a decision on the economic

feasibility of the proposed technology. If he feels that the new technology

is not economically viable for him, he will not adopt it. Any careful review

of the myriad case studies of resistance to change will unquestionably show

that the economic viatbiit- of h e proposed change has been a most important

determinant of adoption or of resistance.

 Among the economic forces influencing technological adoption are the

variables risk and uncertainty which have been a somewhat neglected dimension

of resistance to change among subsistence farmers. The primary focus of the

remainder of the paper will be on the influence of risk and uncertainty and

their dynamic interaction with two sets of economic variables: (a) the absolute

levels of farm living as they relate to societal standards for the minimal

levels of subsistence and the average levels of farm productivity; (b) the

subjective (farmer's) expected variance in output associated with a proposed

new technological introduction compared with the historically determined

variance in output utilizing traditional practices.