The Agriculture Department intends to provide another $250 million in Inflation Reduction Act funding to distressed farm loan borrowers, on top of the $2.2 billion it has already provided, the department's Farm Service Agency announced Monday.
The money will be used to make automatic payments covering any outstanding delinquencies for roughly 4,650 distressed direct and guaranteed farm loan borrowers, according to a release. About 4,485 of the expected recipients, or 96.4%, are delinquent direct and guaranteed borrowers who did not receive prior IRA assistance, while another 165 were borrowers with shared appreciation agreements.
"These ongoing investments made possible by the Inflation Reduction Act come on the heels of critical Farm Service Agency Loan Reforms that became effective last week,” Farm Service Agency administrator Zach Ducheneaux said in a release. “The payments announced today help to ensure that more than 4,600 producers across the country will see another production season."
It’s easy to be “in the know” about what’s happening in Washington, D.C. Sign up for a FREE month of Agri-Pulse news! Simply click here
Aid for distressed direct and guaranteed borrowers currently in bankruptcy will be subject to a case-by-case review process, the Farm Service Agency said.
An economic impact analysis of the previously distributed IRA funds estimated they would support nearly 49,000 jobs, increase household income by $2.471 billion, contribute $3.55 billion to the U.S. Gross Domestic Product, and increase gross revenues from total sales of final goods and services by $5.663 billion.
"While the economic impacts of these payments will diminish over time as the economy returns to a steady state, the one-time payments are expected to strengthen local economies and potentially improve resilience and growth prospects," the release said.
The Farm Service Agency has also announced a slate of new rules intended to make accessing farm loans easier, according to the release. It has also rolled out a loan assistance too, online loan application, online direct loan repayment feature and simplified direct loan paper application to streamline the process for producers, it said.
For more news, go to www.agri-pulse.com.
