ABA Banking Journal
No Result
View All Result
  • Topics
    • Ag Banking
    • Commercial Lending
    • Community Banking
    • Compliance and Risk
    • Cybersecurity
    • Economy
    • Human Resources
    • Insurance
    • Legal
    • Mortgage
    • Mutual Funds
    • Payments
    • Policy
    • Retail and Marketing
    • Tax and Accounting
    • Technology
    • Wealth Management
  • Newsbytes
  • Podcasts
  • Magazine
    • Subscribe
    • Advertise
    • Magazine Archive
    • Newsletter Archive
    • Podcast Archive
    • Sponsored Content Archive
SUBSCRIBE
ABA Banking Journal
  • Topics
    • Ag Banking
    • Commercial Lending
    • Community Banking
    • Compliance and Risk
    • Cybersecurity
    • Economy
    • Human Resources
    • Insurance
    • Legal
    • Mortgage
    • Mutual Funds
    • Payments
    • Policy
    • Retail and Marketing
    • Tax and Accounting
    • Technology
    • Wealth Management
  • Newsbytes
  • Podcasts
  • Magazine
    • Subscribe
    • Advertise
    • Magazine Archive
    • Newsletter Archive
    • Podcast Archive
    • Sponsored Content Archive
No Result
View All Result
No Result
View All Result
ADVERTISEMENT
Home Ag Banking

USDA highlights programs helping distressed farm borrowers, outlines 2023 goals

February 14, 2023
Reading Time: 4 mins read
ABA supports FCA’s efforts to improve services for YBS farmers, ranchers

The U.S. Department of Agriculture recently highlighted its work in the last two years to assist distressed borrowers, improve land access for underserved producers and provide disaster assistance and relief for producers impacted by natural disasters.

In 2022, the USDA’s Farm Service Agency FSA provided nearly $800 million in assistance to distressed borrowers with direct and guaranteed loans to help delinquencies and resolve uncollectable farm loan debts. Section 22006 of the Inflation Reduction Act provided $3.1 billion for USDA to deliver this relief for distressed borrowers and to expedite assistance for those whose agricultural operations are at financial risk. FSA is currently working with borrowers to address complex cases and help producers with cashflow challenges. In 2023, additional opportunities for financially distressed borrowers to receive payments will begin. FSA will start by contacting direct borrowers, or a guaranteed borrower’s lender, to validate payment amounts.

The Increasing Land, Capital and Market Access Program invests up to $300 million in funding to support projects that enabled underserved producers to access land, capital and markets. Land access is critical to the success of agriculture. Underserved producers have not received the amount of specialized technical support that would benefit the launch, growth, resilience and success of their agricultural enterprises. USDA accepted applications for the program through Nov. 18, 2022, and anticipates announcing selections in 2023.

Last year, USDA launched the Loan Assistance Tool to help farmers and ranchers with the farm loan application process. FSA experiences a high rate of incomplete or withdrawn applications, particularly among underserved customers, due in part to a challenging and lengthy paper-based application process. This uniform application process helps to ensure all farm loan applicants receive equal support and have a consistent customer experience with FSA regardless of their individual circumstances.

FSA administers several programs designed to help agricultural producers recover from the impacts of natural disasters including drought, winter storms, hurricanes and more. Over the past two years, FSA paid more than $3.5 billion through these disaster programs and has made several policy enhancements to better meet the recovery needs of producers who have suffered significant production and physical losses on their operations. FSA expanded the Emergency Assistance for Livestock, Honeybees and Farm-Raised Fish Program to provide program benefits to producers of fish raised for food and other aquaculture species as well as cover above normal expenses for transporting livestock to forage and grazing acres and to transport feed to livestock impacted by qualifying drought.

FSA also updated the Livestock Indemnity Program payment rates to better reflect true market value of non-adult beef, beefalo, bison and dairy animals. In the wake of devastating tornadoes and derechos in 2021, FSA designed a new program to deliver direct assistance to producers who lost critical grain storage facilities and struggled to meet their on-farm storage capacity needs. USDA also just announced expanded program benefits and improvements to several conservation, livestock and noninsured crop assistance programs to ensure these programs are reaching all producers in need including underserved producer groups.

Building on the existing suite of USDA disaster assistance programs that help offset losses and manage risk incurred as a result of natural disaster events USDA rolled out the Emergency Relief Program (ERP) and Emergency Livestock Relief Program (ELRP). In 2022, FSA implemented the first phase of ERP, which delivered more than $7 billion in payments to commodity and specialty crop producers. FSA also delivered more than $600 million through ELRP to livestock producers who experienced losses to drought and wildfire in calendar year 2021. The agency recently announced additional relief through ERP Phase 2 for producers who suffered a decrease in allowable gross revenue in 2020 or 2021 due to losses of eligible crops from a qualifying natural disaster event.

In 2022, FSA initiated Dairy Margin Coverage (DMC) for small and midsize dairies. This included offering a new Supplemental DMC (SDMC) program and updating its feed cost formula to reflect the actual costs dairy producers pay for high-quality alfalfa hay. For 2022, SDMC paid producers nearly $3 million. DMC provided $76.6 million to dairy producers who had coverage in 2022, and the signup for 2023 closed on Jan. 31, 2023. In additional safety-net support, FSA provided more than $2.1 billion in critical support through the Agriculture Risk Coverage and Price Loss Coverage programs to mitigate fluctuations in either revenue or prices for certain crops.

FSA updated the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) and Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program (CREP) to improve their environmental benefits while expanding the reach of the program. In 2021, FSA added a Climate-Smart Payment Incentive and higher payment rates for CRP as well as tweaked CREP to allow for added staffing capacity and to better include organizations including Tribes. In the past year, FSA enrolled about 5.6 million acres into the CRP through its General, Continuous and Grassland signups in 2022. This surpassed the 3.9 million acres expiring this year. Grassland CRP had its largest signup in history, enrolling 3.1 million acres.

“For 2023, FSA remains committed to continually evaluating how we can deliver our programs in a manner that is meaningful to the farmers and ranchers we serve and demonstrates our ongoing dedication to improving customer service and enhancing equity in program delivery,” said FSA Administrator Zach Ducheneaux.

ADVERTISEMENT
Tags: Farm bankingFarm Service AgencyRural bankingUSDA
ShareTweetPin

Author

Christopher Delporte

Christopher Delporte

Christopher Delporte is a senior editor for the ABA Banking Journal and vice president of editorial strategy for member communications at the American Bankers Association.

Related Posts

Prologue and Predictions: 2021’s Ag Policy Shifts and a Look at the Coming Year

Senate confirms USDA deputy secretary

Ag Banking
June 12, 2025

Stephen Vaden, who served as general counsel to the USDA and received an appointment from the president in 2020 to serve on the U.S. Court of International Trade, is now the deputy secretary of the USDA. The Senate...

ABA, associations: Farm Bill needed amid worsening economic situation in farm country

ABA, state bankers associations urge Senate to include ACRE Act in budget bill

Ag Banking
June 3, 2025

ABA and 52 state bankers associations urged senators to include legislation to expand access to affordable real estate credit in rural areas in a budget package currently under consideration in Congress.

ABA unveils key policy priorities for 2025

Budget bill passed by House includes multiple banking industry priorities

Ag Banking
May 22, 2025

The House narrowly passed a reconciliation budget package with several tax provisions supported by ABA. The legislation next heads to the Senate.

ABA comments on proposal to improve accounting in tax credit structures

House committee advances tax package with ABA priorities

Ag Banking
May 14, 2025

The House Ways and Means Committee voted along party lines to advance a federal budget reconciliation tax package that includes several of ABA's policy priorities

ABA unveils key policy priorities for 2025

ABA announces support for several provisions in budget reconciliation tax package

Ag Banking
May 13, 2025

ABA strongly supports several provisions in the federal budget reconciliation tax package, including language to make permanent the Section 199A pass-through deduction, ABA President and CEO Rob Nichols said.

ABA, associations urge Congress to overturn CFPB credit card late fees rule

Federal budget reconciliation tax package includes ACRE Act, other ABA priorities

Ag Banking
May 12, 2025

Congressional leaders unveiled a federal budget reconciliation tax package that contains several banking industry priorities, including language to expand access to affordable real estate credit in rural areas, as championed by ABA.

NEWSBYTES

ABA, associations urge CFPB to rescind changes to adjudication process

June 13, 2025

ABA DataBank: May inflation cooler than expected, but still above Fed’s 2% target

June 13, 2025

Consumer sentiment rebounds in June

June 13, 2025

SPONSORED CONTENT

AI Compliance and Regulation: What Financial Institutions Need to Know

Unlocking Deposit Growth: How Financial Institutions Can Activate Data for Precision Cross-Sell

June 1, 2025
Choosing the Right Account Opening Platform: 10 Key Considerations for Long-Term Success

Choosing the Right Account Opening Platform: 10 Key Considerations for Long-Term Success

April 25, 2025
Outsourcing: Getting to Go/No-Go

Outsourcing: Getting to Go/No-Go

April 5, 2025
Six Payments Trends Driving the Future of Transactions

Six Payments Trends Driving the Future of Transactions

March 15, 2025

PODCASTS

Podcast: Old National’s Jim Ryan on the things that really matter

June 12, 2025

Podcast: What bankers need to know about ‘First Amendment audits’

June 5, 2025

Podcast: Accelerating banking for quick-service restaurants

May 8, 2025
ADVERTISEMENT

American Bankers Association
1333 New Hampshire Ave NW
Washington, DC 20036
1-800-BANKERS (800-226-5377)
www.aba.com
About ABA
Privacy Policy
Contact ABA

ABA Banking Journal
About ABA Banking Journal
Media Kit
Advertising
Subscribe

© 2025 American Bankers Association. All rights reserved.

No Result
View All Result
  • Topics
    • Ag Banking
    • Commercial Lending
    • Community Banking
    • Compliance and Risk
    • Cybersecurity
    • Economy
    • Human Resources
    • Insurance
    • Legal
    • Mortgage
    • Mutual Funds
    • Payments
    • Policy
    • Retail and Marketing
    • Tax and Accounting
    • Technology
    • Wealth Management
  • Newsbytes
  • Podcasts
  • Magazine
    • Subscribe
    • Advertise
    • Magazine Archive
    • Newsletter Archive
    • Podcast Archive
    • Sponsored Content Archive

© 2025 American Bankers Association. All rights reserved.