Resilience of the horticultural community : engaged researchers promoting productivity and profitability

Agriculture significantly contributes to the economic and social resilience of communities in regional Australia. It also provides an informative way of understanding the interdependence of environmental, economic and social capitals and the roles each plays in building sustainability and community resilience. This chapter examines this interplay by considering the agricultural industry within the Bundaberg region. First it will provide an overview of the framework used to understand community resilience within this context before exploring each of the capitals in more detail as they play out within the agricultural industries of this region. Finally, we put forward that engaged research approaches allow researchers to work with farmers as partners in the coproduction of knowledge that contributes to building each of these capitals and thus the sustainability and resilience of communities and regions.