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A comprehensive study of the history of cotton production in Thailand shows the causes of its collapse. Crop protection problems are regarded as major driving forces behind the recent changes in cotton production systems. The cotton industry went through the characteristic sequence leading from subsistence farming to a disaster phase, because of increasing reliance on chemical pesticides. Integration of biophysical and socio-economic aspects of cotton production allows for this evolutionary path and the obstacles to the dissemination of IPM principles among key stakeholders to be explained. Suggestions are made to facilitate the process of collective learning toward more sustainable IPM practices.