Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Tuesday announced 252 million Canadian dollars (US $179 million) to the agri-food sector to help protect farmers and food processors against the COVID-19 pandemic.

During a press briefing, Trudeau said that the money can be used to buy personal protective equipment for workers, adapt to health protocols and support other social distancing measures.

The prime minister announcement came as Canadian farmers begin the spring planting season, warning that producers could start culling their animals to cope with reduced capacity at some of the country’s largest meat processing plants, which have been especially hard hit by the pandemic.

Of the 252 million Canadian dollars, 77 million is earmarked to help food processors buy protective equipment for workers and expand domestic processing capacity of food; 125 million is meant to help cattle and hog producers because of their costs increase, and 50 million will go for a food surplus purchasing program to compensate food producers.

“We know that farmers still have concerns about what this pandemic means for their industry long-term. I can assure you that we are working with farmers, stakeholders, and provinces and territories to find lasting solutions,” Trudeau further added.

“This is an initial investment and if we need to add more, we will”, he said.

On April 28, Trudeau said that nearly 10,000 businesses have applied for his government’s wage-subsidy program of C$73 billion ($52 billion) to deal with the COVID-19 crisis.

The program covers 75 per cent of the first C$58,700 of an employee’s wage.

Trudeau has expanded the scope of, and eligibility for the program since first promising it last month.

It was passed at the Canadian parliament on April 11.

Last week, Trudeau announced to allot additional 1.1 billion country’s dollars (about US $782 million) for national medical research against the COVID-19.

As of Tuesday, there were 61,961 cases of COVID-19 in Canada and 4,037 deaths.

Meanwhile, the number of global coronavirus cases crossed the 3.6-million mark, and 2.5+ lakh deaths were reported around the world, according to the John Hopkins University tracker.