Maize of the Ancestors and Modern Varieties: The Microeconomics of High-Yielding Variety Adoption in Malawi

Farmer adoption of seed/fertilizer technology can be characterized in terms of several interrelated choices. One choice is whether to adopt only seed, only fertilizer, or both components of the technology (adoption). Another choice relates to the extent of land allocation to modem and to farmers' seed varieties (extent of adoption). A third choice is the level per hectare of either seed or fertilizer or both (intensity of adoption).1 In the literature about agricultural innovations in developing countries, some theoretical models treat more than one aspect of the adoption decision,2 but most econometric approaches have portrayed only the discrete adoption choice for a single input. Although farmers often adopt parts or components of recommended technology, neither the theoretical nor the econometric models have included the level of fertilizer applied to farmers' varieties in the analysis of seed/ fertilizer adoption.3 Two features of the seed/fertilizer adoption decision, as defined above, are particularly evident in Malawi. First, even when farmers adopt hybrid maize, they continue to allocate a part of their maize area to their own varieties. Microeconomic theory provides four explanations for land allocation to both modern and traditional seed variet-