Initially, rural sociologists studied the diffusion of technologies.
Cumulative adoption was described with an S-shaped curve which
results fromthe fact that only fewfarmers adopt the newtechnology in
the early stage of the diffusion process (Rogers, 1962). At this stage, only
aminority of farmers have acquired full information about the potential
advantages of the technology, hence the pace of adoption is slow.
Moreover, fear of possible risks associated with the new technology
enhances farmers' reluctance to adopt. However, the degree of risk
reduces as more farmers adopt, so that the rate of adoption increases.
Adoption increases gradually and begins to level off, ultimately reaching
an upper ceiling. Obviously, not all individuals in a social systemadopt a
technology at the same time and based on that, Rogers (1962) divided
adopters into five adopter groups: innovators, early adopters, early
majority, late majority and laggards. In describing the characteristics of
these groups, he suggested that differences exist between adopters at
different stages of the distribution curve.