A record amount of funding for ag research was announced in Tuesday’s provincial budget.

Agriculture Minister Lyle Stewart says one thing he’s pleased with is a record $31.8 million of the $378.6 million that was put towards agriculture will support programs that foster the adoption of new technologies on the farm and continue research into new crop varieties and more.

He says they’ve seen the advantages research provides to our agriculture industry in helping increase crop and livestock production in the province.

"It's because of two things. It's because we have a great research cluster around the Universtiy of Saskatchewan," he said. "It's the best one in Canada, and our producers are really adapters of new technology, their hunger for it, they want it, they want to put it to work, and they want to increase their yields with it."

Other highlights for agriculture in the budget include over $258 million to fully fund business risk management programs and a new funding agreement for Animal Protection Services of Saskatchewan which Stewart is happy to see.

"Year over year the public has a higher standard for animal protection, and we're not just talking about farm animals here, which are generally well looked after," he said. "We're talking about dogs, cats, horses, and on acreages, and things of that effect that aren't really agricultural but they're our responsibility. Proud to see a 190,000 dollars increase in their budget taking it up to 800,000 thousand this year."

Most of the $378.6 million in agriculture spending this year will fund business risk management programs including AgriStability, Crop Insurance and the Western Livestock Price Insurance Program.