[3] The Ministry is responsible for assigning Veterinary Surgeons to carry out checks in regard to the issuing of REGA Licences (Registro de Explotación) a requirement for the ownership of horses on Spanish property and small holdings.

Specifically, it corresponds to the MAPA the preparation of State legislation on agriculture, fisheries and food; the proposal and carrying out of the general guidelines of the Government on agricultural, fisheries and food policies; the representation of Spain in the international organizations corresponding to these matters; as well as the coordination of actions, cooperation and agreement in the design and application of all policies that affect the scope of competences of the autonomous communities and the other public administrations, encouraging their participation through the cooperation bodies and instruments adequate.

[7] Although it was not initially planned that this new agency would take on the agricultural affairs, a few weeks later it was decided to do so, removing his charitable powers, which remained in the Interior Ministry.

[9] As happened with the Ministry of the Interior, Development gave rise to new departments, such as Public Instruction and Fine Arts (1900), Labour (1920)​ or National Economy (1928).

During this Republican period, the new department had to follow the work of its predecessor and find a solution to what was considered the main problem in the rural world: latifundism.

This problem was mainly in southern Spain, where there were large landowners who monopolized the land ownership, such as President Alcalá-Zamora, who opposed some proposals.

The Executive Council of this new agency was made up of representatives from both the progressive and conservative sectors and, in practice, acted as an element of moderation towards those who sought a more radical application of agrarian policy.

[16] Although this could be blamed on the conservatives who, on many occasions, tried —unsuccessfully due to the balance of forces— to overturn proposals that sought to intensify crops or expropriate land, the reality is that the main problem was the complexity of the norm and respect for the procedure, which required that each case be treated individually.

These expectations were finally dashed by the new Agrarian Reform Act of 1935, which, among other things, eliminated expropriation without compensation, allowed landowners to participate in the valuation of their lands and reduced the IRA's budget.

At the organic level, the dictatorship did not make any relevant changes within the scope of the Ministry and it was initially structured through the Undersecretariat and the national services (or directorates-general) of Agriculture, of Livestock, of Forestry, Hunting and River Fishing and of Economic and Social Land Reform.

[16] During the rest of this authoritarian period, the Ministry achieved notable stability, with small reforms in 1962, 1968 and 1971 that distributed powers and created some directorates-general.

Following the transfer of powers in 1980, the Ministry of Agriculture assumed the powers over commercial fishing that until then had been held by the Ministry of Transport and Communications, also assuming, among other agencies, the Undersecretariat of Fisheries (which a year later would be renamed the General Secretariat of Fisheries) and the Spanish Institute of Oceanography (Spanish: Instituto Español de Oceanografía, IEO).

[27] The 2000s began with the establishment of a main structure that will remain stable to this day, around the traditional Undersecretariat —charged with running the department on a day-to-day basis— and two general secretariats (one for Agriculture and Food and the other for Fisheries).

Following a series of protests between 2020 and 2021,[34][35][36] minister Luis Planas promoted a series of reforms to the Food Chain Act that made it mandatory to set a price that covered producers' expenses, greater publicity for those sanctioned for non-compliance,[37] and the creation of a registry of food contracts,[38] while strengthening the AICA, which saw its budget increase by almost 32%,[39] as well as its control and sanction powers.