The results of a study to assess the initial impact of the introduction of contour hedgerow intercropping on the Indonesian islands of Lombok and Sumbawa are described. The study focused on the reasons for adopting this technique and its initial effect. The results of detailed case studies in four villages indicated that the process of adoption is heterogeneous. Land-use conditions in the four villages were much more diverse and dynamic than the project anticipated. Rather than being an ‘off the shelf’ technique as assumed by the project, hedgerow cropping proved to be a ‘prototype’ technique; the farmers' ability to adapt the practice to their specific farming conditions such as subsistence food production or cash crop cultivation was an important motive for its adoption. In some cases the introduction competed with the extension of other promising land-use practices. Several farmers adopted the technique not because of its productive benefits, but as a means to gain access to land or credit, or to demonstrate their allegiance to social networks. The results indicate that there were significant discontinuities between what the project intended to achieve by introducing the technique and the farmers' motives for adopting it.