Delinquent Loan Notices Threaten 20,000 Farmers

WASHINGTON —  The government’s main agricultural lender is about to tell 20,000 farmers that they must act quickly to avoid foreclosure on delinquent loans, an Agriculture Department official said Monday.

The notices, to be mailed in four to six weeks, are a sign that many farmers still suffer financial woes.

“Certainly the problems in agriculture have not been corrected,” said Keith Smalley, a program official for the department’s Farmers Home Administration, which is known as the farm lender of last resort.

Farmers who receive the notices will be given 45 days to declare their interest in restructuring their delinquent loans. If they do not respond, they face foreclosure.

The lending agency sent similar notices in November to 66,426 farmers whose delinquent loans had accumulated over several years. During that time, the agency was barred by a court order from foreclosing.

The notices touched off sharp protest from farm groups and farm supporters in Congress who said the notices demanded too much information from farmers.

Among the first group of farmers to receive notices, 31,280 failed to respond. According to the most recent lending agency statistics, 12,562 of the borrowers who responded had qualified for some sort of assistance. Others repaid their debts or stayed in farming by renting back their farms from the lending agency.