@article{Susanne:231398,
      recid = {231398},
      author = {Susanne, Kummer and Rebecka, Milestad and Friedrich,  Leitgeb and Christian, R. Vogl},
      title = {Building Resilience through Farmers’ Experiments in  Organic Agriculture: Examples from Eastern Austria},
      journal = {Sustainable Agriculture Research},
      address = {2012},
      number = {526-2016-37839},
      year = {2012},
      abstract = {Farmers have always lived in changing environments where  uncertainty and disturbances are inevitable. Therefore,  farmers need the ability to adapt to change in order to be  able to maintain their farms. Experimentation is one way  for farmers to learn and adapt, and may be a tool to build  farm resilience. Farmers’ experiments as defined in this  paper are activities where something totally or partially  new is introduced at the farm and the feasibility of this  introduction is evaluated. The theoretical framework  applied to study farmers’ experiments is the concept of  resilience. Resilience is the capacity of social-ecological  systems to cope with change, and is a framework used to  assess complex systems of interactions between humans and  ecosystems.

This paper explores to which extent farmers’  experimentation can help build farm resilience. In addition  to arguments found in the literature, five organic farms in  Eastern Austria are used to illustrate this potential. The  farmers were interviewed in 2007 and 2008. The respective  farmers all worked fulltime on their farms, were between 34  and 55 years old, and owned farms between 15 and 76 ha.  These farmers experimented in ways that enhance resilience  – at the farm and in the region. The outcome of experiments  can be management changes, new insights, or technology that  can be passed on and potentially be built into education  and advisory institutions. To encourage farmers’  experiments, it is important to develop conditions that  support farmers in their experimenting role.},
      url = {http://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/231398},
      doi = {https://doi.org/10.22004/ag.econ.231398},
}