Time to Streamline the FSA Loan Process?
It’s time for your Southeast Regional Ag News. On the Ag Information Network, I’m Haylie Shipp.
Well is it time to streamline the USDA FSA loan process? Yes, says their administrator Zach Ducheneaux…
“I would like to see the Farm Service Agency be able to offer the best deal out of the gate and function less like a lending institution and more like a federal government initiative. The challenge that we have right now is that our loan officers for whatever reason, are often in a more conservative frame of mind than they need to be. And that conservative frame of mind actually puts the producers in a weaker position because we don't extend the best terms that we can at the outset.”
Slowing things down right at the get-go is the loan application itself. It is 29 pages…
“The team is working really hard on refining that, streamlining the process so that we can get to more timely decisions for our producers, 29 pages is just frankly too much for anything. And that's the short end. And it isn't the fault of our county staff, so don't beat them up when you talk about it, they'd rather have it be better too. It's our job as leadership at the national level to do that. Our farm loan team has been working on that for years, now we've got the stars aligned to where we're going to get there and start to streamline that and bring it down to around a 12 page application to start with.”
Again FSA Administrator Zach Ducheneaux.
