The above paper was prepared for the Conference on Economic Consequences of New Rice Technology organized by the International Rice Research Institute, Philippines during December 13-16, 1076. Section 1 of the paper summarizes the major conclusions of the resource paper on the subject by Dr. Christians David and Dr. Randolph Barker. Section 2 focuses on certain methodological issues and conclusions of the paper. It has been pointed out in the paper that while there was a substantial impact of the modern rice varieties on fertilizer consumption in the Asian rice economy, in certain situations, this impact was not so much through increase in the rates of fertilizer application due to upward shifts in the response functions. Instead it has been through accelerating diffusion of fertilizer use on rice. This conclusion follows from analysis of response functions as well as analysis of demand functions estimated from actual fertilizer consumption data. The paper also presents some data from India to support the major conclusion.