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Factors determining the adoption of modern varietiesThe extent of adoption of modern varieties in Mungeshpur is quite high (more than90% of area). Although the adoption rate is lower in Itgaon (60% of area), it is neverthelesssubstantial. The major modern varieties grown are Sarjoo-52 and NDR varieties(Table 9). Sarjoo-52 was released in 1980 and is a 130-d variety that performs wellwhen supplemental irrigation is available. Its use has spread, however, even to areasunder rainfed conditions and it has replaced Mahsuri, which is of slightly longer duration.Over time, Sarjoo-52 has become quite popular and this variety alone nowcovers almost 40% of the rice area in Itgaon. Similarly, another popular modern variety,NDR-97, was released in 1991. Its duration is 95 d and it is grown mostly underupland fields that are proportionately more in Itgaon.Sarjoo-52 is not only higher yielding but also less risky than other modernvarieties and some traditional varieties. Using a stochastic dominance analysis, Pandeyand Pal (2000) found that Sarjoo-52 outyielded popular traditional varieties in all ofthe sampled years. The cost/returns analysis shown in Table 10 also indicates that,overall, modern varieties currently being grown not only have higher mean net returns(defined as the value of output minus the cash cost) but also lower coefficientsof variation relative to traditional varieties. The usual notion that modern varieties aremore risky than the traditional ones is not supported by the data from these studyvillages. The question still remains as to why the adoption rate remains lower inItgaon than in Mungeshpur, and among small farmers compared with large ones.Obviously, factors other than risk must constrain the adoption of these seeminglyless-risky modern varieties.Table 9. Percentage area under major modernvarieties (MV) at the study sites (1994-98). aVariety Mungeshpur ItgaonSarjoo-52 35 40Mahsuri 20 3NDR-118 7 18Saket-4 6 6Indrasan 6 2NDR-80 5 7Pant-4 4 2NDR-40032 2NDR-359 2Ashwati 2Pant-10 2 3NDR-97 2 16Other NDRs 2Other MVs 6 2All MVs 100 100a Numbers have been rounded to nearest whole number.332 Singh et al