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ExpectMore.govExpectMore.gov home pageEXPECT FEDERAL PROGRAMS TO PERFORM WELL, AND BETTER EVERY YEAR.
 
Program Assessment

Program

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Agricultural Credit Insurance Fund - Guaranteed Loans

The Farm Service Agency's (FSA) guaranteed loans program provides lenders (e.g., banks, Farm Credit System institutions, credit unions) with a guarantee of payment should the borrower default on the loan. The guarantee permits lenders to offer loans to farmers who would not otherwise be eligible for credit.

Rating

What This Rating Means

PERFORMING
Moderately Effective

In general, a program rated Moderately Effective has set ambitious goals and is well-managed. Moderately Effective programs likely need to improve their efficiency or address other problems in the programs' design or management in order to achieve better results.
  • It is unclear if loans are reaching intended recipients. Current measures only assess improvement in economic viability of farmers and ranchers and timely response to loan making and servicing requests.
  • No other agencies at the Federal level provide the same assistance as FSA guaranteed loan programs. The Small Business Administration (SBA) also has a loan program for the farm sector, but much of SBA's farm loans are directed toward farm-related businesses that FSA cannot finance. There are also several established programs at the State level, but there is no other program national in scope.
  • FSA allocates a share of loan funding for use by beginning and socially disadvantaged groups (Racial and ethnic minorities, and women) by setting aside a share of funding for these applicants.

Improvement Plan

About Improvement Plans

We are taking the following actions to improve the performance of the program:

  • Assessing performance targets to ensure that they are ambitious.
  • Revising the long-term performance measures to better assess progress toward improving economic viability of farmers and ranchers.
  • Conducting a performance-based review of farm loan programs including an analysis of program participants, length of time borrowers remain in the program, and the effectiveness of targeted assistance.

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