Agriculture received a few mentions in Tuesday's federal budget announcement.

Some of the highlights included $75 million over five years to Global Affairs Canada "to establish a stronger Canadian diplomatic and trade support presence in China and Asia", a new Farm Credit Canada (FCC) lending product to help get more women entrepreneurs involved in agriculture and $100 million over 5 years to develop rural broadband innovation, including low-earth-orbit satellites.

Canadian Federation of Agriculture (CFA) President Ron Bonnett had these early thoughts on the budget announcement.

"I think one of the interesting ones is talk about taking a look at a review of regulations that are blocking opportunities and growth, and apparently that's specific to agriculture. I think that would be fairly well received by not only the farm community but the processing sector as well."

The government is also pledging to provide funding to help address food safety risks, as well as funding proposed to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) to support the negotiations of export conditions for agricultural, fishery and forestry products and certification of Canadian exports against other countries’ import requirements.