Program Description This program provides loans to assist farmers in marketing their commodity crops and, as a result, improve and stabilize farm income. General Program Requirements In order to qualify for this benefit program, you must be or have been a rancher whose professional experiences include(d) agricultural production or farming.

The Farm Service Agency (FSA) offers farm operating loans to farmers who are temporarily unable to obtain private, commercial credit. Operating loans may be used to purchase items needed for a successful farm operation. These items include livestock, farm equipment, feed, seed, fuel, farm chemicals, repairs, insurance, and other operating expenses.

The Farm Service Agency (FSA) makes farm ownership (FO) loans to farmers and ranchers who temporarily cannot obtain a loan from a bank, Farm Credit System institution, or other lender due to disaster and financial hardship. FSA also makes loans to beginning farmers. FO loans can be used to purchase a farm or ranch; construct buildings or make other real estate improvements; promote soil and water conservation; and pay loan closing costs. Both "guaranteed" and "direct" loans are available through this program. Under the guaranteed loan program, conventional lenders (banks, Farm Credit System institutions, and other lenders) make the loan, and FSA guarantees it for up to 95 percent of the loss of principal and interest. The maximum FSA guaranteed FO loan is $899,000. Your lender can tell you if a guarantee is the right loan for you.

Farm Storage Facility Loans are provided to encourage the construction of on-farm grain storage capacity and to help farmers adapt to identity preserved storage and handling requirements for genetically enhanced production.

The Fisheries Finance Program (FFP) is a direct government loan program that receives an annual loan authority from Congress to provide long-term loans to the aquaculture, mariculture, and commercial fisheries industries. The Program will finance up to 80% of the depreciated actual cost of an eligible project cost. The applicant must have a minimum of a 20% equity contribution to the eligible project. Eligible projects consists of Aquaculture and Mariculture facilities and Fisheries Shoreside Facilities. The FFP can provide both financing and refinancing of existing debt for these projects. The FFP can also provide financing to purchase or refinance an existing fishing vessel and also to reconstruct an existing fishing vessel as long as the reconstruction does not increase harvesting capacity. The FFP cannot provide funds to construct a new fishing vessel, but it can provide funds to refinance existing debt on a newly constructed vessel.

The Farm Labor Housing Loan and Grant program provides capital financing for the development of housing for domestic farm laborers. Farm Labor Housing loans and grants are provided to buy, build, improve, or repair housing for farm laborers, including persons whose income in earned in aquaculture (fish and oyster farms) and those engaged in on-farm processing. Funds can be used to purchase a site or a leasehold interest in a site; to construct housing, day care facilities, or community rooms; to pay fees to purchase durable household furnishings; and to pay construction loan interest.

7(a) loans are the most basic and most used type loan of SBA's business loan programs. Its name comes from section 7(a) of the Small Business Act, which authorizes the Agency to provide business loans to American small businesses. The loan program is designed to assist for-profit businesses that are not able to get other financing from other resources.

The CDC/504 loan program is a long-term financing tool for economic development within a community. The 504 Program provides growing businesses with long-term, fixed-rate financing for major fixed assets, such as land and buildings. Generally, A private investor will provide 50% of the project cost, the Certified Development Company (backed by SBA) will provide 40% of the cost, and the business applicant will provide 10% equity injection. The 504 Program cannot be used for working capital or inventory, consolidating or repaying debt, or refinancing.

If your small business has suffered substantial economic injury, regardless of physical damage, and is located in a declared disaster area, you may be eligible for financial assistance from the U.S. Small Business Administration. Small businesses and small agricultural cooperatives that have suffered substantial economic injury resulting from a physical disaster or an agricultural production disaster designated by the Secretary of Agriculture may be eligible for the SBA's Economic Injury Disaster Loan Program. Substantial economic injury is the inability of a business to meet its obligations as they mature and to pay its ordinary and necessary operating expenses. An EIDL can help you meet necessary financial obligations that your business could have met had the disaster not occurred. It provides relief from economic injury caused directly by the disaster and permits you to maintain a reasonable working capital position during the period affected by the disaster.

The Small Business Investment Company (SBIC) program, part of the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA), was created in 1958 to fill the gap between the availability of venture capital and the needs of small businesses in start-up and growth situations. SBICs exist to supply equity capital, long­term loans and management assistance to qualifying small businesses.