The U.S. Department of Agriculture provides subsidized credit to high-risk farm borrowers unable to obtain credit from commercial sources. To boost incomes and to relieve financial stress, Farm Service Agency programs can provide additional interest rate subsidies to borrowers. However, when...

Government programs to assist beginning farmers enjoy strong political support. Current Federal programs use credit enhancements to help beginning farmers purchase commercial farms; but higher debt loads increase financial risk. Future Federal policy may need to go beyond traditional credit...

An analysis of the characteristics of farm businesses by size of FCS direct lending association suggests that further consolidation of FCS lending should have limited negative impacts on credit availability. Commercial-sized farm businesses with FCS real estate debt appeared similar to those who...

A binomial logit model was used to analyze relationships between financial characteristics and loan performance for FSA direct borrowers receiving direct FO or OL loans in fiscal 2005. Not surprisingly, the results indicate a strong and direct relationship between many key financial variables...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to estimate a three‐equation model of US commercial bank usage of the Farm Service Agency's (FSA) guaranteed operating loan and interest assistance programs. Also, to identify the key farm and banking variables that affect the decision to use loan...

Agricultural credit markets are dominated by two institutional retail lender groups, the cooperative Farm Credit System (FCS) and commercial banks. Analysis of farm loans made over the 1991S1993 and 2001S2002 periods indicates that FCS lenders were more likely to serve full‐time commercial...

Federal farm credit programs currently administered by the USDA were initiated in the early 1900s to help the farm sector cope with natural disasters, and these programs have continued to evolve. There has been a rich history of research analyzing USDA farm credit programs and the effects they...

USDA direct and guaranteed farm loan programs exhibit significant geographical variation in lending activity. County‐level estimations made using Tobit procedures indicate that use of Farm Service Agency (FSA) farm loan programs is greater in counties with lower per capita income and regions...