Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs (Wales)

The Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs (Ysgrifennydd y Cabinet dros Materion Gwledig) is a member of the cabinet in the Welsh Government. The current officeholder is Huw Irranca-Davies since March 2024.

Responsibilities
The responsibilities of the post, as of December 2023, are to oversee:


 * Programme for Rural Development
 * Future farming policy, and the direct payments made to farmers
 * Development of the agriculture sector, including wages and skills
 * Genetically modified crops
 * Development of the agri-food sector, its associated supply chains, and the promotion and marketing of food and drink from Wales
 * Animal health and welfare, including the Bovine TB Eradication Plan
 * General policy on livestock, poultry, equines, companion animals, and bees, as well as artificial insemination
 * Policy on identifying and moving livestock
 * Holding registration policy
 * Protection and management of wildlife, including the control of pests, injurious vermin and weeds and the regulation of plant health, seeds and pesticides
 * Oversee the management of inland, coastal and sea fisheries, including policy regulation and enforcement, also overseeing the Common Fisheries Policy and the management of fishery harbours
 * Power to require provision of information about crop prices
 * REACH and Chemical policy
 * New National Park

As a Welsh Minister, the holder is to have an annual salary of £105,701 for 2020–2021.

History
When the assembly was established, it was expected that the first holder of the "agriculture and rural affairs portfolio" would be Ron Davies, Labour AM for Caerphilly and former Welsh Labour leader and Welsh Secretary. The shunning of Davies, by his successor Alun Michael, First Secretary of Wales, in Michael's cabinet, was described to be a disappointment and a surprise by Davies. By 2000, there was also a "deputy minister for Rural Affairs, Culture and Environment", with Delyth Evans AM holding the position in Rhodri Morgan's Labour–Liberal Democrate cabinet from 17 October 2000 to 31 July 2002.

During Plaid Cymru's Elin Jones' tenure in the role from 2007, she became notable for implementing some decisions while Minister for Rural Affairs. She announced the mass cull of Wales’ badger population in an effort to reduce bovine TB. While in the role, Jones clashed with the UK Government by supporting the EU's Common Agricultural Policy, and opposed the idea of selling woodland as is the practice in England. In 2010, Jones set out a horticulture plan while in the role. Following the 2011 National Assembly for Wales election, Labour decided to form a government without Plaid Cymru, therefore Jones was not returned to the role. Carwyn Jones, then first minister, was criticised in 2011 for not including a "rural affairs" role in his cabinet.

The position was reestablished in 2016, following the appointment of Lesley Griffiths as Cabinet Secretary for the Environment and Rural Affairs.