A survey for the SUAD of la Manche department was intended to analyse the refusal of a majority of farmers in one "commune" to innovate and to accept a CUMA for the dehydration of lucerne. The initial hypotheses were based on the characteristics of the innovation and the innovators. But that is not enough. The present survey proposes a method of analysis and a number of explanatory concepts that link the characteristics of the innovation and of the innovators (as seen by those concerned) with the development of their social and economic education, which enable the refusal of innovation to be explained.
