The Financial Condition of the Farmers Home Administration's Loan Portfolio and Its Borrowers

Gao ID: 128980 January 30, 1986

GAO discussed farmers' growing reliance on Farmers Home Administration (FmHA) resources, focusing on: (1) the FmHA portion of the total farm debt; (2) the total number of loans and borrowers; (3) the loan amounts for each FmHA farmer program; and (4) delinquencies and loan losses occurring in farmer programs. GAO found that: (1) the FmHA outstanding farm loan portfolio increased from $6 billion in 1978 to almost $28 billion in 1985; (2) FmHA has made new loans to insolvent borrowers; (3) about half of the FmHA farm loan portfolio is in jeopardy of default; (4) $4 billion of the 1985 loan delinquencies were concentrated in the emergency disaster program; (5) total annual farm loan losses increased 400 percent between 1982 and 1985; and (6) the average borrower has a debt-to-asset ratio of 83 percent with a net cash shortfall of $56,000. GAO also found that FmHA helped to bring about 45,000 borrowers current during fiscal year 1985 through rescheduling, reamortization, and debt waivers.



The Justia Government Accountability Office site republishes public reports retrieved from the U.S. GAO These reports should not be considered official, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Justia.