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property or indebtedness. Existing social structures and institutions (viz.

extended family) which already provide some degree of "risk insurance" should

be recognized as such and wherever possible treated as complementary to any new

insurance system.

 Fourth, methods of technological introduction and trial in a peasant community

should recognize that in the early stages the typical farmer in the community

attaches a subjective variance to the expected yield of the new technology which

is considerably wider than the true variance. Extension and information

measures should concentrate just as much on reducing this subjective variance

in the minds of potential innovators as on spreading knowledge about the

average or maximum yields. Assurance as to the dependability of the practice

or technology may be more important to the peasant farmer than its dramatic

output possibilities.



 xxxxC xxxxx

 Peasantry throughout the world constitute the largest fraction of mankind

 and their pattern of life is one of the oldest in human history. The peasant,

 through his inherited institutions and his traditionally determined socio-

 economic behavior, has developed a strategy to win the basic struggle for

 survival. He will not relinquish this strategy easily.

 One of the most dramatic and dynamic forces inducing change in traditional

 societies is new technology. Subsistence economies and agrarian societies pro-

 vide a security which has the force of historical certainty in the survival of

 the peasantry and their community. Under these circumstances, attempts at

 change, especially those which come into direct conflict with the fundamental

 goals of security and survival, must take into account the degree of risk and