A very limited research study has been conducted to investigate the discontinuance of agricultural innovations and as a result very little is known about this important aspect of diffusion behaviour. It has been also observed that the new technology has benefited the big farmers mainly and the small farmers have not been so much benefited. Thus, the present investigation was designed to find out the extent of discontinuance of the new farm technology and to determine the degree to which the discontinuance of the new farm technology could be predicted from certain personal, socio-economic and psychological variables among small farmers. The study was conducted in five development blocks of the Udaipur district (Rajasthan) following a multistage stratified random sampling procedure in 10 villages. Ten recommended practices of maize and wheat cultivation were selected to measure discontinuance behaviour. The findings revealed high discontinuance of the new practices of maize and wheat cultivation. Significantly high discontinuance was also observed from innovation to innovation. Discontinuance behaviour was found influenced by risk preference, socio-economic status and cosmopoliteness in step-wise and multiple regressions.

Keyword: Discontinuance Behaviour, New Farm Technology, Independent Variables.