Information on technology adoption and diffusion in a given society is important for research, extension, and development efforts that benefit the marginal farmers. This research reviews literature focused on the adoption of two agricultural technologies/practices; SALT in the Philippines and SRI in India to examine the roles of various stakeholders in the process. The identification of the roles of the major stakeholders in technology adoption and diffusion is important for identifying and alleviating the constraints affecting diffusion of innovation. The study uses the innovation system approach to analyse the role of stakeholders in the process. It especially focuses on how institutional influences change the innovation and adoption process, and on the role of various stakeholders in changing the conditions for the adopters. The case studies show that successful technology adoption is dependent on a wide range of factors, the most important being the network of research, training and development stakeholder groups that come from public, private and NGO sectors. Farmers' characteristics like farm size, land ownership, access to information, environmental awareness, membership in local groups, and utilization of social networks emerge as some of the variables that are more often positively associated with adoption of technologies. Likewise complexities of technologies, labor constraints, and weak policies have negative and significant influences on the adoption of technology. The study concludes that farmer adoption rates can be improved by strengthening influential stakeholders' networks and promoting technology into communities with genuine support and supervision from the government.