Keystone Agricultural Producers (KAP) says it is generally pleased with the Manitoba Department of Agriculture's allocation of the provincial budget, as announced this week.

KAP president Dan Mazier says this year's provincial budget is good news for the agriculture industry, particularly in the case of agricultural research.

"There were no cuts, especially to agriculture on the research side, in fact there was a small bump on the research side, so that's good. They've stopped that decline in investing research and innovation... and they've turned that around," Mazier says.

According to the previous government's budget numbers, research funding in Manitoba had been cut by more than 50 per cent over the past eight years.

The budgeted number on agriculture spending as a whole did drop about a million dollars for 2016, but Finance Minister Cameron Friesen explains this is comes from a decrease in farm program insurance payouts because production in Manitoba has been strong in recent years.