science

Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs

Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs rather than just read about it. In short: The Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA; initials pronounced as 'Dare-aa') (Irish: An Roinn Talmhaíochta, Comhshaoil agus Gnóthaí Tuaithe; Ulster Scots: Depairtment o' Fairmin, Environment an' Kintra Matthers) is a government department in the Northern Ireland Executive, the devolved administration for Northern Ireland. The minister with overall responsibility for the department is the Mi…

Key takeaways

Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA; initials pronounced as 'Dare-aa') (Irish: An Roinn Talmhaíochta, Comhshaoil agus Gnóthaí Tuaithe; Ulster Scots: Depairtment o' Fairmin, Environment an' Kintra Matthers) is a government department in the Northern Ireland Executive, the devolved administration for Northern Ireland. The minister with overall responsibility for the department is the Minister of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs. The department was called the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (DARD) between 1999 and 2016. The Minister of Agriculture previously existed in the Government of Northern Ireland between 1921 and 1972, where the department was known as the Ministry of Agriculture. The current Permanent Secretary is Katrina Godfrey.

Responsibilities DAERA has responsibility for food, farming, environmental, fisheries, forestry and sustainability policy, and the development of the rural sector in Northern Ireland. It assists in the sustainable development of the agri-food, environmental, fishing and forestry sectors of the economy (having regard for the needs of the consumers, the protection of human, animal and plant health, the welfare of animals and the conservation and enhancement of the environment). It provides a business development service, a veterinary service and the College of Agriculture, Food and Rural Enterprise (CAFRE), and is responsible to the UK Government's Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) for the administration of schemes affecting the whole of the United Kingdom and also oversees the application of European Union agricultural, environmental, fisheries and rural development policy to Northern Ireland. Its main counterpart in the Republic of Ireland is the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine. The department has two executive agencies – the Northern Ireland Environment Agency (NIEA) and the Forest Service Northern Ireland – and also sponsors four non-departmental public bodies – the Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute (AFBI), the Agricultural Wages Board for Northern Ireland (AWB), the Livestock & Meat Commission for Northern Ireland (LMC) and the Northern Ireland Fishery Harbour Authority (NIFHA). DAERA is anecdotally known as the Department of Agriculture by many farmers and members of the public. Agriculture (and agricultural subsidies) has a more significant role in the Northern Ireland economy than in the overall UK economy; the structure of agriculture is more similar to the sector in the Republic of Ireland. The future of agriculture is a major local issue in Brexit.

History

As with the governance of Northern Ireland more generally, the history of the department and its predecessors can be divided into the following main periods:

Dublin Castle administration (prior to 1921) Government of Northern Ireland (officially the Executive Committee of the Privy Council of Northern Ireland, 1921–1972) direct rule administration by the United Kingdom Government (1972–1999) Northern Ireland Executive (1999–2017, with direct rule during suspensions) Northern Ireland Civil Service administration (in the absence of an Executive) The Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction for Ireland (DATI), established by Sir Horace Plunkett, was responsible for agricultural policy for the whole island of Ireland under the Dublin Castle administration from 1899 onwards. A separate Ministry of Agriculture was established at the foundation of Northern Ireland in 1921, with Sir Edward Archdale as its initial minister. The last Act of the Parliament of Northern Ireland was the Agriculture (Abolition of County Committees) Act (Northern Ireland) 1972, which received royal assent on 28 March 1972. The ministry was subsequently known as the Department of Agriculture for Northern Ireland under direct rule; Northern Ireland was included in the Common Agricultural Policy (the CAP) from January 1973, when the UK joined the European Union (EU). An agricultural ministry with an Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) minister, Leslie Morrell, was included in the cross-community Northern Ireland Executive (the 'Sunningdale Executive') which was briefly established in 1974. Following the 1998 Northern Ireland Good Friday Agreement referendum in May 1998 and the granting of royal assent to the Northern Ireland Act 1998 in November 1998, a Northern Ireland Assembly and Northern Ireland Executive were established by the United Kingdom Government. The Department of Agriculture was renamed as the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (DARD) in December 1999 and granted a slightly reduced remit; responsibility for inland fisheries and waterways was transferred to the newly formed Department of Culture, Arts and Leisure (DCAL; pronounced as 'Dee-kaal'). Devolution was suspended for four periods, during which the department came under the responsibility of direct rule ministers from the Northern Ireland Office i.e. between 12 February 2000 and 30 May 2000; on 11 August 2001; on 22 September 2001; and (most significantly) between 15 October 2002 and 8 May 2007. Devolution was restored in May 2007. The Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA) was established in May 2016, following a reduction in the number of government departments under the Fresh Start Agreement. The main changes relating to its remit were as follows:

the new department inherited the main functions of the former Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (DARD) environmental regulation was transferred into its remit from the former Department of the Environment (DoE) the Rivers Agency (responsible for rivers and flooding policy) was transferred to the new Department for Infrastructure (DfI) inland fisheries was transferred back from DCAL (which had received that responsibility in 1999) DCAL was dissolved and inland waterways was transferred to the new Department for Communities (DfC) Devolution continued until all ministerial offices were vacated on 26 January 2017, due to a political dispute between the Democratic Unionist Party and Sinn Féin.

… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs

In research: Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1921 establishments in Northern Ireland, Agriculture in Northern Ireland, Fishing in Northern Ireland, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs in simple terms?

Why does Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs.