Emergency farm loans streamlined

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Farm Service Agency Administrator Keith Kelly announced that USDA is proposing changes that will streamline emergency farm loan requirements to make it easier for farmers to qualify and so that farmers will receive loans more quickly with less paperwork. The proposed changes would simplify the process for estimating losses, would remove the need for collateral and increase the loan limit from 80 percent to 100 percent of production losses.

The proposed changes, published in the Federal Register on Sept. 12, have a 60-day comment period and will:

1. Reduce the number of written rejections that an applicant must acquire to demonstrate that other credit cannot be obtained.

2. Simplify the process for estimating production losses.

3. Remove the requirement that emergency loan applicants be able to provide collateral to secure an emergency loan.

4. Require applicants to obtain crop insurance on crops used as security.

5. Eliminate the current $5,000 family-living expense withholding at closing.

6. Increase the loan limit of 80 percent of production losses to 100 percent.

7. Allow livestock production losses to be considered physical losses rather than production losses.