Farmers Home Administration:

Farm Program Debt, Delinquencies, and Loan Losses as of June 30, 1989

RCED-90-158BR, Jun 26, 1990

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Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the Farmers Home Administration's (FmHA) farm loan program debt, delinquencies, and loan losses.

GAO found that: (1) the FmHA major farm program direct loan portfolio included over $28 billion in outstanding principal and unpaid interest and consisted of 624,173 loans held by 350,867 borrowers; (2) past-due payments on FmHA major farm program direct loans rose from $164 million in 1976 to $8.7 billion in 1989; (3) delinquent borrowers held $12 billion in outstanding principal and almost $5 billion in unpaid interest; (4) $7.8 billion of the $8.7 billion past due was owed by more than 44,000 borrowers who had not made payments in 3 or more years; and (5) total major farm program annual loan losses for both direct and guaranteed loans increased over 4,000 percent between 1982 and 1989.