To those in agriculture, there was little surprise that in the annex to the Belfast Agreement setting out the areas where North/ South co-operation might be possible, agriculture and animal and plant health headed the list.
It also specified that there could be co-operation on relevant EU programmes, such as STAR, INTERREG, LEADER 11 and their successors, and in the area of rural development. It is all just a formalisation of what's been going of for decades between officials North and South.
"It will be like coming out of the closet for us," said one senior official in the Department of Agriculture this week, adding that only officials know the levels of co-operation which have existed over the years.
He paid tribute to senior civil servants in the Department of Agriculture in Northern Ireland (DANI) who had, even when times were difficult, co-operated with their Southern counterparts.
"Some of those farsighted people who were using their heads and working for the entire community would have been sacked on the spot if certain politicians in the North had been aware of what was going on."
That co-operation became more formalised when Ireland joined the then EEC in 1973, and it became clear to Northerners that having a British minister for agriculture batting for them was not such a good idea. EU schemes designed for the Republic were equally applicable to the North and, albeit sometimes within tight political controls, the farming community in the North was able to make advances on foot of the work being done by their Southern counterparts.
The Minister for Agriculture, Mr Walsh, is enthusiastic about the future. "The soil types, the farming systems and the attitudes are the same North and South and have been for generations. Because this is an island, the North and South have similar status in terms of animal and plant health.
"For many years, there has been full co-operation between the authorities here and there on the bovine TB eradication schemes and in the areas of brucellosis and other diseases." It was Mr Walsh who appointed DANI's secretary, Mr Bill Hodges, to the State's first food board, An Bord Bia, a post he held until his retirement. Mr Hodges had always seen the benefits of co-operation.
The benefit of being able to label Northern food as Irish, though emotive for some unionists, was given a huge boost when, in 1996, the North, with low levels of BSE, found its beef products banned from world markets. This created problems for the Government as well because as long as the worldwide ban was in place on any part of this island, it was not good for Ireland's image.
The former Minister for Agriculture, Mr Ivan Yates, was to the fore in attempting to have the ban on Northern Ireland beef lifted. This has now been achieved and the first exports from the North should begin next month or July.
Mr Walsh said the impact on agriculture in the Republic from the North was very significant. For instance, Northern producers have a strong grip on the poultry trade in the Republic and in egg production.
"The contribution made by Northerners in the horse industry is huge and that is frequently overlooked. The same is true of the greyhound industry, where the input is also very high.
"As we move closer under Maastricht and the Amsterdam Treaties, we are likely to see even more EU programmes like the STAR and INTERREG, which was designed for border areas. The LEADER rural development programme is also a programme which has equal validity North and South and we will be looking to the Border regions in relation to structural funding," said the Minister.
"I would really like to see a common Rural Environment Protection Scheme (REPS) for the island as a whole because that can link into the various quality control schemes for food production."