Ministry of Agriculture

The Ministry of Agriculture (Ag Ministry), also known as the Imperial Agriculture Ministry, was a government department of the Galactic Empire that was tasked with managing agricultural and horticultural production throughout the galaxy. Zare Leonis' parents, Leo Leonis and Tepha Leonis, worked for the Ag Ministry, which led them to move their family to the Outer Rim planet of Lothal. Other Ag Ministry officials included Assistant Vice Minister Sarkos. Imperial Advisor Sim Aloo of the Imperial Ruling Council was a high-ranking member of the ministry.

On Lothal, some of the Ag Ministry's policies included mechanizing the harvesting of jogan fruit by using droid pickers and evicting local farmers from their lands to make way for Imperial mining operations. The Ag Ministry's policies alienated many of the locals including Zare Leonis' friend Beck Ollet, who planted detonators in an Imperial minefield. On another occasion, stormtroopers opened fired on a peaceful gathering of farmers protesting the loss of their farms and orchards. Despite the heavy-handedness of the stormtroopers towards the farmers, local media reported that the farmers had provoked the violence by attacking the mining equipment and surveyors.

Text and facts from the “Ministry of Agriculture” article on Wookieepedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0. Modified for this site.