Posted: Thursday, February 09, 2012 11:00 AM
Beginners helped to buy land
Capital Press
The USDA Farm Service Agency is offering help to beginning and minority farmers who want to buy farmland.
The Land Contract Guarantee Program is designed to help them obtain land through a sales contract with the owner.
Melissa Cummins, farm loan chief for the agency office in Spokane, said the program was designed as a tool for beginning farmers.
"We have a lot of land that sells on a contract for somebody who can't quite get a commercial bank loan," she said.
The guarantee program gives protection to landowners willing to sell land on a contract to a new or minority farmer, she said.
The national program offers two options, one that guarantees up to three installments on the contract and one that guarantees the unpaid principal of the contract. Guarantees can be used in the purchase of land for up to $500,000.
Cummins is uncertain of the level of interest in the program. A national pilot program did not receive much interest because it offered only the three-payment option, she said.
The agency retooled the program, adding the guarantee on the principal balance of the contract.
"We're certainly going to give it a good push here, hope that people will take a look at this program and see if it will fit their needs," she said.
It was authorized under the 2008 Farm Bill.
For more information, access the agency website at www.fsa.usda.gov or contact local FSA offices.
Comments made about this article
Posted By: Helen N. On: 2/18/2012
Title: Exactly
Your horn should toot and words proclaim when the day equal opportunity is not just a cliche and all people get the same opportunity from the start (e.g. a parent at home to raise them or at the minimum, quality day care; everybody lives in a well funded school district; ample, quality food to eat and additional experiences that broaden the mind) participation in some programs should remain limited to provide the foot hold necessary to build upon. As a rep for "Center for Equal Opportunity," are you working toward this broader sense of equality of opportunity to which you insinuate has been violated by the FSA? I sure hope so...
Posted By: Roger Clegg, Ctr for Equal Opportunity On: 2/7/2012
Title: Don't discriminate
There is no justification for limiting participation on the basis of skin color and what country someone's ancestors came from. Why not let people participate without regard to race or ethnicity?