# Ministry of Agriculture (Argentina)

The Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries (Spanish: Ministerio de Agricultura, Ganadería y Pesca) of Argentina, commonly known simply as the Ministry of Agriculture, was a ministry of the national executive power that oversaw production, commerce and health regulations in the agricultural, livestock and fishing industries.
The Ministry of Agriculture was one of the oldest portfolios in the Argentine government, having existed – under various names and incarnations – since 1898, when it was created by President Julio Argentino Roca.
The ministry was dissolved in August 2022 through decree n° 451 by president Alberto Fernández, turning it into a secretariat under supervision of the Ministry of Economy.

## History

The Ministry of Agriculture of Argentina was first established in 1898 through Law 3727 enacted by President Julio Argentino Roca following the 1898 constitutional reform; the first minister responsible was Emilio Frers, a lawyer and businessman and member of the Sociedad Rural Argentina. The government's agricultural policies had previously been co-ordinated by the National Department of Agriculture, a subdivision of the Ministry of the Interior established by President Domingo Faustino Sarmiento in 1871. The Ministry of Agriculture maintained its ministerial status and autonomy until 1958, when it was reorganized into the Secretariat of Agriculture and Livestock within the Ministry of Economy by President Arturo Frondizi.
The portfolio briefly regained ministerial status during the de facto administrations of presidents Alejandro Lanusse (1972–1973) and Roberto Viola (1981), otherwise remaining a subdivision of the Ministry of Economy (with the exception of the 2002–2003 presidency of Eduardo Duhalde, during which it was a secretariat of the Ministry of Production).
In 2009 the secretariat was once again elevated to ministerial level and was given the responsibilities of the fisheries secretariat by President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, under the name of Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, Fisheries and Food; its first minister was Julián Domínguez. The Ministry retained its name and responsibilities during the remainder of Fernández de Kirchner's presidency, until it was renamed as Ministry of Agroindustry during the presidency of Mauricio Macri (2015–2019), with Ricardo Buryaile as minister.
On 5 September 2018 the ministry was briefly reorganized as a secretariat of the Ministry of Production once again as part of a large-scale cabinet reshuffle which reduced the number of ministries from 22 to 11. The ministry quickly regained its status on 2 August 2019, when it was given its current name of Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries.

## Attributions

The attributions and responsibilities of the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries are specified in Article 20 of the current Law of Ministries (Ley de Ministerios), published in 2019. According to this law, the Ministry is in charge of intervening in the establishment of tariffs and export and tariff refunds in the areas within its jurisdiction; defining the national state's commerce policy on agriculture, livestock and fisheries; promoting, organizing and participating in agriculture-related exhibits, fairs, contests and missions abroad; among many other responsibilities.
The issue of internal tariffs on agricultural exports has long been a contested issue between the Argentine government and the Argentine agricultural industry. The 2008 farm crisis, triggered by the Fernández de Kirchner administration's decision to impose a 44% tax on soybean exports resulted in farmers' strikes, mass protests and roadblocks. Agricultural exports constituted over half of Argentina's exports in 2019.

### Structure and dependencies

The Ministry of Agriculture counted with a number of centralized and decentralized dependencies. The centralized dependencies, as in other government ministers, are known as secretariats (secretarías) and undersecretariats (subsecretarías); there are currently three of these:
* Secretariat of Food and Bioeconomy (Secretaría de Alimentos y Bioeconomía)
* Secretariat of Family Agriculture, Co-ordination and Territorial Development (Secretaría de Agricultura Familiar, Coordinación y Desarrollo Territorial)
* Secretariat of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries (Secretaría de Agricultura, Ganadería y Pesca)
* Undersecretariat of Agricultural Markets (Subsecretaría de Mercados Agropecuarios)
* Undersecretariat of Administrative Management (Subsecretaría de Gestión Administrativa)
* Direction of Press and Communication (Dirección de Prensa y Comunicación)
Additionally, the ministry has with several decentralized dependencies, which are financially autonomous. These include the National Institute of Agricultural Technology (INTA), the National Food Safety and Quality Service (SENASA), the National Institute for Fisheries Research and Development (INIDEP), the National Vitiviniculture Institute (INV), the National Seeds Institute (INASE), the National Yerba Mate Institute, and Innovaciones Tecnológicas Agopecuarias S.A. (INTEA).

## Headquarters

The Ministry of Agriculture has been headquartered at Av. Paseo Colón 922, in the Buenos Aires barrio of San Telmo, since 1919. The original design, drafted in 1911, is an eclectic building with Tudor, Gothic Revival and Beaux-Arts influences, representing the various currents and the architectural eclecticism popular in late 19th and early 20th century Buenos Aires. The complex consists of two twin buildings, the older of which houses the Agriculture Ministry, while the newest (inaugurated in 1931) originally served as the headquarters of Yacimientos Petrolíferos Fiscales, and later became the offices of the Dirección de Meteorología Nacional (now the Servicio Meteorológico Nacional). The overall work was designed by the Kimbau y Cía and the Andrés Vanelli e Hijos architectural studios.
Both buildings were renovated in 2010 by order of Minister Julián Domínguez; restoration works included various decor and the original lamps and chandeliers, as well as upgrading the air conditioning and computing networks.

## List of ministers

| No. | Minister | Party | Term | President |
| Ministry of Agriculture (1898–1958) |||||||
| 1 | Emilio Frers | National Civic Union | 12 October 1898 – 1 September 1899 | Julio Argentino Roca |
| 2 | Emilio Civit | National Autonomist Party | 1 September 1899 – 11 January 1900 | Julio Argentino Roca |
| 3 | Martín García Mérou | National Autonomist Party | 11 January 1900 – 21 March 1901 | Julio Argentino Roca |
| 4 | Ezequiel Ramos Mexía | National Autonomist Party | 21 March 1901 – 18 July 1901 | Julio Argentino Roca |
| 5 | Wenceslao Escalante | National Autonomist Party | 18 July 1901 – 12 October 1904 | Julio Argentino Roca |
| 6 | Damián Torino | National Civic Union | 12 October 1904 – 12 March 1906 | Manuel Quintana |
| 7 | Ezequiel Ramos Mexía | National Autonomist Party | 12 March 1906 – 4 November 1907 | José Figueroa Alcorta |
| 8 | Pedro Ezcurra | National Autonomist Party | 5 November 1907 – 12 October 1910 | José Figueroa Alcorta |
| 9 | Eleodoro Lobos | National Autonomist Party | 12 October 1910 – 21 December 1911 | Roque Sáenz Peña |
| 10 | Adolfo Mugica | National Autonomist Party | 21 December 1911 – 16 February 1914 | Roque Sáenz Peña |
| 11 | Horacio Calderón | National Autonomist Party | 16 February 1914 – 12 October 1916 | Roque Sáenz Peña |
| 11 | Horacio Calderón | National Autonomist Party | 16 February 1914 – 12 October 1916 | Victorino de la Plaza |
| 12 | Honorio Pueyrredón | Radical Civic Union | 12 October 1916 – 13 September 1917 | Hipólito Yrigoyen |
| 13 | Alfredo Demarchi | Radical Civic Union | 13 September 1917 – 6 March 1922 | Hipólito Yrigoyen |
| 14 | Eudoro Vargas Gómez | Radical Civic Union | 6 March 1922 – 9 August 1922 | Hipólito Yrigoyen |
| 15 | Carlos J. Rodríguez | Radical Civic Union | 9 August 1922 – 12 October 1922 | Hipólito Yrigoyen |
| 16 | Tomás Le Breton | Radical Civic Union | 12 October 1922 – 1 September 1925 | Marcelo Torcuato de Alvear |
| 17 | Emilio Mihura | Radical Civic Union | 1 September 1925 – 12 October 1928 | Marcelo Torcuato de Alvear |
| 18 | Juan Bautista Fleitas | Radical Civic Union | 12 October 1928 – 6 September 1930 | Hipólito Yrigoyen |
| 19 | Horacio Beccar Varela | Independent | 6 September 1930 – 15 April 1931 | José Félix Uriburu |
| 20 | David Arias | National Democratic Party | 16 April 1931 – 20 February 1932 | José Félix Uriburu |
| 21 | Antonio de Tomaso | Socialist Party | 20 February 1932 – 3 August 1933 | Agustín Pedro Justo |
| 22 | Luis Duhau | National Democratic Party | 24 August 1933 – 13 August 1935 | Agustín Pedro Justo |
| 23 | Miguel Ángel Cárcano | Radical Civic Union | 4 January 1936 – 20 February 1938 | Agustín Pedro Justo |
| 24 | José Padilla | National Democratic Party | 20 February 1938 – 8 March 1940 | Roberto Marcelino Ortiz |
| 25 | Cosme Massini Ezcurra | Independent | 8 March 1940 – 2 September 1940 | Roberto Marcelino Ortiz |
| 26 | Daniel Amadeo y Videla | National Democratic Party | 2 September 1940 – 4 June 1943 | Roberto Marcelino Ortiz |
| 26 | Daniel Amadeo y Videla | National Democratic Party | 2 September 1940 – 4 June 1943 | Ramón S. Castillo |
| 27 | Diego I. Mason | Independent (Military) | 7 June 1943 – 17 January 1945 | Pedro Pablo Ramírez |
| 27 | Diego I. Mason | Independent (Military) | 7 June 1943 – 17 January 1945 | Edelmiro Julián Farrell |
| 28 | Amaro Ávalos | Independent (Military) | 17 January 1945 – 20 October 1945 | Edelmiro Julián Farrell |
| 29 | Francisco Pedro Marotta | Independent | 20 October 1945 – 4 June 1946 | Edelmiro Julián Farrell |
| 30 | Juan Carlos Picazo Elordy | Peronist Party | 4 June 1946 – 19 August 1947 | Juan Domingo Perón |
| 31 | Carlos Alberto Emery | Peronist Party | 19 August 1947 – 4 June 1952 | Juan Domingo Perón |
| 32 | Carlos A. Hogan | Peronist Party | 4 June 1952 – 29 June 1955 | Juan Domingo Perón |
| 33 | José María Castiglione | Peronist Party | 30 June 1955 – 21 September 1955 | Juan Domingo Perón |
| 34 | Alberto Mercier | Independent | 23 September 1955 – 1 May 1958 | Eduardo Lonardi |
| 34 | Alberto Mercier | Independent | 23 September 1955 – 1 May 1958 | Pedro Eugenio Aramburu |
| Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock (1972–1973; 1981) |||||||
| 35 | Ernesto Jorge Lanusse | Radical Civic Union | 9 March 1972 – 25 May 1973 | Alejandro Lanusse |
| 36 | Jorge Aguado | Independent | 29 March 1981 – 12 December 1981 | Roberto Viola |
| Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, Fisheries and Food (2009–2015) |||||||
| 37 | Julián Domínguez | Justicialist Party | 1 October 2009 – 10 December 2011 | Cristina Fernández de Kirchner |
| 38 | Norberto Yauhar | Justicialist Party | 10 December 2011 – 20 November 2013 | Cristina Fernández de Kirchner |
| 39 | Carlos Casamiquela | Independent | 20 November 2013 – 10 December 2015 | Cristina Fernández de Kirchner |
| Ministry of Agroindustry (2015–2018) |||||||
| 40 | Ricardo Buryaile | Radical Civic Union | 10 December 2015 – 21 November 2017 | Mauricio Macri |
| 41 | Luis Miguel Etchevehere | Independent | 21 November 2017 – 5 September 2018 | Mauricio Macri |
| Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries (2019–2023) |||||||
| 41 | Luis Miguel Etchevehere | Independent | 2 August 2019 – 10 December 2019 | Mauricio Macri |
| 42 | Luis Basterra | Justicialist Party | 10 December 2019 – 20 September 2021 | Alberto Fernández |
| 43 | Julián Domínguez | Justicialist Party | 20 September 2021 – August 2022 | Alberto Fernández |