To test the hypothesis that early-stage agricultural innovativeness is positively related to rural literacy, the author set up two investigations in the Chiduku and Seki Tribal Trust Lands of Rhodesia. The results of both studies are reported. Accelerated literacy instruction was introduced and innovativeness was measured in the following farm season. It was indexed by finding out when respondents had adopted nine recently introduced farming practices. Methods used at Chiduku were improved for the later Seki study by weighing the innovations according to their importance and complexity and by gaining some control over extraneous variables. The major constraints to adoption of innovations were lack of labor, oxen, and equipment. The Seki findings indicate that literacy instruction and innovativeness do not appear to be related, nor does there appear to be a delayed effect. The author "cautiously concludes" that illiteracy alone does not appear to be an immediate major obstacle to agricultural development. On the contrary, evidence suggests that economic "take off" in the context of improved opportunity structure precedes the demand for literacy instruction. Implications for rural development programs are described. A 34 item list of references, including the author's preliminary studies, is included. (MS)