Sept. 30 (Bloomberg) -- Argentina named provincial lawmaker Julian Dominguez to head a newly created Ministry of Agriculture, Fishing and Livestock, Cabinet Chief Anibal Fernandez said.

Dominguez, 46, vice president of the lower house in the Buenos Aires province legislature since 2007, will be sworn in tomorrow when the ministry replaces the Agriculture Secretariat, Fernandez said today in Buenos Aires. Dominguez replaces Carlos Cheppi as the country’s top agriculture official.

The creation of the ministry comes after more than a year of strained relations between President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner’s government and farmers. Fernandez’s plan last year to raise export taxes on grains and oilseeds prompted four months of protests, road blockades and food shortages in South America’s second-biggest economy.

“Hopefully, this minister will arrive with plans to open talks,” said Ricardo Buryaile, vice president of the Argentine Rural Confederation, in an interview on C5N television channel. “There is absolutely no dialogue taking place now.”

Argentina has not had a ministry of Agriculture since 1981, when it was dissolved during the last military dictatorship as part of a Cabinet reshuffle. Ministries in Argentina are created and dissolved periodically.

Argentina’s Grain Belt

Between 1995 and 1999, Dominguez was mayor of Chacabuco, a city of 45,000 residents located in northern Buenos Aires province, within the Argentine grain belt. The Agricultural Ministry will be his first government job related to farming.

Argentina is the world’s biggest soybean-oil exporter and the second biggest for corn after the U.S. It’s the top beef producer after Brazil, China and the U.S.

Dominguez has held government jobs since 1990, at both the national and provincial levels. He was the public works minister in Buenos Aires province from 1999 to 2002, presidential Cabinet secretary in 2003 and military affairs secretary in 2003.

The Agriculture Secretariat had been a part of the Production Ministry headed by Debora Giorgi.

To contact the reporters on this story: Bill Faries in Buenos Aires at wfaries@bloomberg.net; Rodrigo Orihuela in Buenos Aires at rorihuela@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: September 30, 2009 12:45 EDT