Agriculture has a long history in the Netherlands as major contributor to the national economy. Resulting from its abundance in arable land and fertile soil, its food production exceeds national borders. As the farming intensity increased, the implications of the agricultural practices quickly caught-up manifesting in the ever increasing need of space for energy, water, agricultural land. Rising energy costs, water salinization, flooding risks and drought, and the effects of the nitrogen crisis are detrimental for the farming community in the Netherlands’ south-western delta region Zeeland. Today, progressive farmers find themselves within the tensions and pressures of an on-going Polycrisis where their own personal needs and wishes of stability and security are competing with the national and regional policies accelerating the energy transition and meeting climate targets.

A community and media analysis allowed us to frame the project from the perspective of the transition community. Defining their wishes, needs and concerns highlighted a conflict between top-down expectations and bottom-up ambitions and initiatives. Complemented with a spatial analysis aided in positioning the spatial potentials of the agricultural landscape in Zeeland within the water, energy and food security nexus (WEF nexus, n.d.) and determining, therefore, its competitions.

The project addresses the research question on how can the progressive farmers in rural Zeeland act as drivers of the energy transition, while safeguarding their emotional, economic and productive stability and security, and contributing to a future-proof rural system at the intersection of energy, water, and food security, while mediating between top-down policy frameworks and bottom-up practices?

Our project reimagines the agricultural value chain based on concrete strategic and tactical actions, that aim to enable the farmer to become a producer not solely a consumer. These fall within two main goals: creating a sustainable agricultural system and decentralising the existing energy system to achieve self-sufficiency for farmers in an environmentally supportable agriculture process. Initiated by pilot projects that encourage the participation and contributions of local stakeholders, it establishes collaboration and bridges the gap between bottom-up agency and top-down guidance and support.

The societal relevance is explored through the scalability and replicability of the strategy to other regions and provinces and its contributions to spatial justice.