Technology adoption has often been a key constraint on improving productivity, income and yields in farming, particularly in developing countries where market-based systems of production are not well developed, the subsistence economy remains strong, land is held under communal tenure and family labour is the backbone of production. This session welcomes papers that explore socio-cultural and economic factors that constrain or limit the adoption of new technologies in agroforestry systems. We interpret technology in its broad sense to include non-material technologies such as new farm management techniques, labour arrangements, changing gender relations, new regimes of land tenure, etc., as well as material technologies like new processing machinery, inorganic fertiliser and so on. We anticipate that together the presentations will provide an overview of the key constraints on technology adoption and smallholder productivity in much of the developing world and point to potential solutions and strategies to address such constraints.