This paper reports on an investigation concerning patterns and intensity of adoption of the high yielding varieties HYVs) of boro (winter) rice among the opinion leaders and the farmers in a progressive village and in a less progressive village of Bangladesh. In case of the less progressive village, the intensity of adoption of the HYVs of boro rice increased with the increase in the size of the irrigated area. However, for the farmers of the progressive village an opposite pattern of decreased intensity of adoption of the HYVs of boro in relation to the size of the irrigated area was observed. For all the farmers increase in the intensity of adoption of the HYVs of boro rice could be perfectly attributed to the percentage of the irrigated area showing the decisive importance of water in the cultivation of winter rice. The results of stepwise regression combining both the economic and non-economic factors and the economic factors as a set re-established the above finding. However, as a set, the non-economic factors contributed to a various but generally low extent to the explanation of the variance of intensity of adoption of the HYVs of Boro rice.