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Research Matters

A blog from the Northern Ireland Assembly Research and Information Service
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Research Matters
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Research Matters

Agriculture

An image of a farming landscape in Ireland

COVID-19 and farming – A bitter harvest?

2020 was already set to be a challenging year for farmers across the UK. Having finally reached an agreed Withdrawal Agreement with the EU, the UK is set to formally leave the EU at the end of the current transitional period in December 2020.  As a result of this decision, the UK and each of the devolved administrations were facing major changes in terms of how they would be supporting farmers outside the current Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) framework. There were concerns amongst some local stakeholders around the impacts that such moves would have on the nature and viability of agriculture here.

Image by Jonathan Billinger and licensed for reuse under Creative Commons

How could the Brexit vote affect farming and food in Northern Ireland?

The agri-food sector is a significant one for the economy and employment in Northern Ireland. For a number of reasons, the implications of the vote to leave the EU are difficult to gauge at this stage, but this article attempts to sketch out some of the potential impacts.

Image of a milk tanker travelling down a country road (image by Jonathan Billinger and licensed for reuse under Creative Commons)
A milk tanker travelling down a country road; significant quantities of milk are exported from Northern Ireland south of the border for processing (image by Jonathan Billinger and licensed for reuse under Creative Commons).

Read More »How could the Brexit vote affect farming and food in Northern Ireland?

The merging of environment and agriculture

A new mandate, a new Environment

The merging of environment and agriculture
The merging of environment and agriculture

Local government underwent significant structural change in 2015 with the number of councils reducing from 26 to 11, and the transfer of many functions from central to local government. This has brought changes to the ways in which the environment is managed. In 2016, these changes have continued with a reorganisation of Executive functions.

Read More »A new mandate, a new Environment

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Research and Information Service
Northern Ireland Assembly
Ballymiscaw
Stormont
Belfast
BT4 3XX
Phone: 028 9041 8320

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