Source: NATIONAL SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE COALITION, 1/4/17


America is a nation of family farmers – nearly half of all production comes from small and medium-sized family farms. Like any small business owner, these farmers occasionally need infusions of relatively small amounts of capital to sustain and grow their operations, but often have trouble accessing funds through traditional lenders because of a lack of credit history or limited experience.

In order to better serve smaller farm operators as well as new and socially disadvantaged producers, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) introduced its Microloan program in January 2013. Just before the start of the new year, on December 30, 2016, USDA’s Economic Research Service (ERS) released a report analyzing participation patterns and the effects of outreach to farmers during the program’s first three years. Overall they found that USDA Microloans are going overwhelmingly to the program’s targeted group (small farms, beginning farmers and ranchers, veterans, and farmers from historically socially disadvantaged groups), are attracting borrowers new to USDA’s Farm Service Agency (FSA) direct loans, and that targeted outreach significantly increases program participation and acceptance rates.

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