author(s)
S Karthikeyan, K Bhuvaneswari, JS Kennedy, A Suganthi, KR Ashok and R Shanmugasundaram

abstract
Integrated Pest Management (IPM) is the application of decision making process to select and combine the compatible and efficient management strategies. Practicing IPM is one of the novel approaches in sustainable agriculture. To overcome the hurdles in the implementation of IPM strategies, it is imperative to find the lacunas in the adoption system. The present study was conducted on the constraints faced by the cabbage farmers in the adoption of IPM technology in the Nilgiris district during 2018. A total of 34 farmers were selected for the study and the data were collected through pre-structured questionnaire. Majority of the farmers were facing the highest level of constraints (56%) in adopting IPM technology. Among the constraints, lack of knowledge in ETL estimation (94%) and lack of awareness about natural enemies conservation (94%) were perceived as major constraints by the respondents, followed by lack of technical knowledge about IPM (91%), non-availability of pheromone traps in local market (85%), lack of knowledge about bund crops (82%) and labour scarcity for weeding and manual collection of Spodoptera sp. larva (73%). Lack of knowledge in botanical application is found to be the least constraint (2%).