Abstract: The International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) based in Nigeria developed and introduced a new variety of plantain, (PITA-14) into the country. This variety is resistant to black sigatoka disease which had devastated plantain production in Nigeria. It has been stated that getting new ideas adopted even when it has obvious advantages is often very difficult. The objectives of this study were to identify the socio-economic characteristics of the farmers who have tried this variety and to determine whether the agronomic and physical qualities of PITA-14 met the socio-economic needs of the farmers. All the 53 respondents who agreed to plant the new variety were identified and interviewed. The results showed that the majority of the farmers implemented the recommended agronomic practices like pruning, desucking, weeding and applied manure. However, the other practices like correct spacing, watering and mulching were not practiced by the majority of them. It was also found that there was no significant difference in preference between the hybrid and the local variety. The majority of the respondents preferred the hybrid plantain in terms of number of fingers per bunch, tolerance to drought, resistance to diseases, high yield and early maturing. However, in comparison with the local variety, respondents indicated that it attracted low market price, length of fingers are shorter, poor shelf life, smaller girth of fingers and poor taste of the hybrid plantain. The poor taste of the plantain meant that it attracted low prices in the market In general, farmers preferred the local to the hybrid variety. This study has demonstrated that if farmers are not involved in technology development, the result may not address farmers� needs, hence, low adoption.