Released on March 19, 2025
Saskatchewan's 2025-26 Budget continues the government's strong commitment to the agriculture industry with record funding of $625.0 million an increase of $54.6 million from the previous year.
"With this budget, we will continue to deliver the programs and services producers need, while investing in the long-term success of the industry," Agriculture Minister Daryl Harrison said. "The budget will support Saskatchewan's ranchers, farmers and agri-businesses to take on the challenges they face while continuing to meet the rising global demand for sustainably produced, nutritious food."
Through the federal-provincial Sustainable Canadian Agriculture Partnership, this year's Agriculture budget allocates $483.8 million to continue funding a strong, existing suite of business risk management programs, including Crop Insurance and AgriStability. The budget includes $89.4 million for programs to strengthen the competitiveness, innovation and resiliency of the agriculture sector.
Program funding supports a wide range of initiatives including:
- Innovative work on pest biosecurity, disease surveillance and invasive weeds;
- Research to develop solutions to new emerging problems;
- Farm safety research; and
- An agriculture mentorship program.
Agriculture research remains a top priority in Saskatchewan and this budget invests $37.0 million to help producers stay competitive and profitable in international markets. Over the past five years, the province has invested more than $166.0 million in key personnel at our crop and livestock research facilities, in research chairs to advance strategic priorities and in research projects that demonstrate innovative technologies to producers and agronomists at the local level.
The agricultural industry is foundational to Saskatchewan's Growth Plan with several 2030 targets focused on agriculture. One target includes increasing Saskatchewan's value-added agriculture revenue to $10.0 billion by 2030, and the sector is on track to meet that. This sector is one of the fastest growing in Canada with annual revenue that has more than doubled since 2012, from $3.5 billion to an estimated $7.9 billion in 2023-24.
The province is also on track to achieve the Growth Plan target of increasing crop production to 45 million metric tonnes by 2030. Despite some challenging dry conditions in several areas, Saskatchewan's crop production totalled 35.5 million metric tonnes in 2024, marking a 7.8 per cent increase year-over-year and four per cent above the five-year average.
"Agriculture is a critical contributor to Saskatchewan's economy and deeply integrated into the lives of people all across the province," Harrison said. "We are fortunate to be able to rely on our agriculture producers to help us meet our Growth Plan targets for 2030, because they are the best in the world at what they do - and in many ways they are doing it more sustainably than anyone else."
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