History of the Department

The Agriculture Department of the Velocity Interoperability Network is a young institution, but the land it administers has been farmed for generations and the records it inherited from member organisations reach back many years. The milestones below record the Department's establishment and will be extended as its programmes come into operation.

1. Before September 2026

   Agriculture administered by member organisations

   Before the Department existed, each member organisation of the Network administered the agricultural land within its own area. Holdings were registered on separate lists kept to different standards, inspections followed different rules in each district, and there was no single point to which a suspected outbreak of disease could be reported.

2. 10 August 2026

   The transition period begins

   Member organisations began transferring their holding records, inspection files, veterinary and plant health arrangements and staff to the new Department. Inspections and disease investigations continued under interim arrangements throughout the four weeks that followed.

3. 10 August to 5 September 2026

   The register compiled

   The separate lists of holdings kept by member organisations were reconciled into a single register. Duplicate entries were resolved, holdings straddling former boundaries were assigned to one of five agricultural districts, and 4,218 holdings covering 312,600 hectares were entered. In the same period 386 inspections were carried out and 27 reports of suspected disease investigated, none of which was confirmed.

4. 6 September 2026

   Department established

   The Agriculture Department of the Velocity Interoperability Network was formally established, with responsibility for farming standards, plant and animal health and rural services across the Network, and for the register of agricultural holdings.

5. 6 September 2026

   Official website launched

   The Department launched agriculture.gov.vin, carrying press releases and official statements, the farming standards, guidance on reporting notifiable disease, the opening arrangements of its rural offices and its first statistical release.

6. 6 September 2026

   Standards, disease reporting and rural offices confirmed

   On the day of its establishment the Department published the eight farming standards and the outcomes of the transition inspections, set out the arrangements for reporting notifiable disease and pests, and confirmed that rural offices in the five districts would open between 7 and 11 September 2026.

7. 14 September 2026

   Inspection programme begins

   The Department's own inspection programme begins, starting with the eleven holdings that have an improvement notice outstanding from the transition period. The first training courses follow from 21 September.

8. Forthcoming

   Quarterly reporting and the first annual return

   The Department's first full quarterly statistical release, covering the quarter ending 30 September 2026, will be published in October and announced in the Newsroom. The first annual return, collecting seasonal employment and cropping from every holding, will be made in June 2027.

Announcements are published in the Newsroom. For the Department's present responsibilities, see About the Department; for the register and the Department's first statistical release, see Land and Holdings.