Adoption & Diffusion — Agriculture Extension & Communication Reviewer Questions

Sample Adoption & Diffusion questions with answers and explanations

Board-style items taken from the Agriculture Extension & Communication bank. Every answer is explained, which is the part that makes a review question worth doing twice.

1. A new rice variety is introduced in a barangay. After two seasons only three farmers out of 120 have planted it, and all three are educated, better-off and well travelled. Which adopter category do they represent?

   • A. Innovators correct
   • B. Early majority
   • C. Late majority
   • D. Laggards

   Why: Innovators are the first 2-3%, typically venturesome, better resourced and connected beyond the community. Their adoption is a weak predictor of general uptake precisely because they are atypical -- which is why extension does not treat their success as evidence that diffusion is under way.

2. An extension worker wants to accelerate adoption in the same barangay. Whose adoption would be the strongest signal to the majority?

   • A. Innovators, because they adopted first
   • B. Early adopters, who are respected local opinion leaders correct
   • C. Laggards, because convincing them proves the technology works
   • D. The municipal agriculturist, because of official authority

   Why: Early adopters are integrated into the community and serve as the local reference point others check before acting. Innovators are admired but not imitated because they are seen as different; laggards adopt last by definition and cannot lead anyone.

3. Farmers say they understand a new fertiliser practice and believe it works, but have not used it. Which stage of the adoption process have they reached?

   • A. Awareness, having merely heard of it
   • B. Adoption, since they accept that it works
   • C. Evaluation, weighing whether it applies to their own farm correct
   • D. Trial, since belief implies use

   Why: Awareness and interest have been passed and the farmers are mentally testing the practice against their own circumstances. Evaluation is the stage where extension must supply farm-level evidence rather than more general information -- a demonstration, not another lecture.

4. A technology raises yield 20% but requires a cash outlay equal to a month's income and cannot be tried on a small area. Which two attributes most limit its adoption?

   • A. Low relative advantage and low compatibility
   • B. High complexity and low observability
   • C. Low observability and low compatibility
   • D. Low trialability and high perceived risk relative to advantage correct

   Why: A 20% yield gain is a clear relative advantage, so that attribute is not the barrier. What blocks adoption is that the farmer cannot test it in a small, affordable way, so the whole outlay is at risk at once. Divisible technologies diffuse faster for exactly this reason.

5. Two barangays receive identical training. In one, adoption reaches 60%; in the other, 12%. The difference is that the first has an active irrigators' association. What does this best illustrate?

   • A. Social networks and existing organisations accelerate diffusion correct
   • B. Training quality must have differed between the two
   • C. The technology was unsuitable for the second barangay
   • D. Adoption is random and cannot be predicted

   Why: Diffusion is a social process, not merely an informational one. Existing organisations give farmers trusted channels through which to discuss, observe and reduce uncertainty. The same message travels very differently through a connected community than through an unorganised one.

6. A farmer adopts a hybrid seed for one season, then reverts to his traditional variety. What has occurred, and what should extension do first?

   • A. Rejection -- the farmer never adopted, so no action is needed
   • B. Discontinuance -- investigate why, before promoting the technology further correct
   • C. Late adoption -- the farmer is simply slow and needs more training
   • D. Non-adoption -- the message did not reach him

   Why: Discontinuance after trial is diagnostic information of the highest value: something in the technology failed under that farmer's actual conditions. Promoting harder without finding out what failed risks repeating the failure across the whole barangay.

7. Adoption of a soil conservation practice is high among landowners but very low among tenants in the same area. What is the most defensible explanation?

   • A. Tenants are less educated and cannot understand the practice
   • B. The practice is technically unsuited to tenanted land
   • C. Benefits accrue over years, and tenants lack secure tenure to capture them correct
   • D. Landowners received better training than tenants

   Why: Conservation returns arrive over many seasons, so a farmer without secure tenure may never see them. This is an institutional constraint, not a knowledge gap, and no amount of additional training will resolve it -- which is why tenure reform and extension are complementary.

8. An extension programme reports that 80% of farmers 'are aware of' a new practice and treats this as success. What is the flaw?

   • A. The sample was too small to be reliable
   • B. Awareness should have been measured before the programme
   • C. There is no flaw; awareness is the goal of extension
   • D. Awareness is the weakest stage and predicts little about actual use correct

   Why: Awareness is the first and cheapest stage to achieve, and large gaps routinely open between knowing of a practice and using it. Measuring outcomes at the awareness stage flatters a programme; adoption and continued use are the indicators that matter.

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Other Agriculture Extension & Communication topics

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• Programme Planning — 11 questions
• Communication — 9 questions
• Extension Principles — 3 questions

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