In the development of high beta carotene (HBC) maize, the focus is on subsistence farms which do not get any (or at least very little) benefit from commercial fortification programs. The technology can be considered to be primarily for the small-scale subsistence farmer. The paper postulates a household decision model that takes into account the production and consumption tradeoffs between traditional and biofortified seed. The objective is to understand the effect of these differing traits on the adoption decision when white maize is preferred by the consumers.