Farm Programs: Changes to the Marketing Assistance Loan Program Have Had Little Impact on Payments

Abstract

Federal payments to farmers have reached an historic high over $26 billion in fiscal year 2000. Much of this assistance was targeted to help farmers cope with persistently low commodity prices and was provided principally through the Marketing Assistance Loan Program, which is administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). This program was designed originally to provide short-term financing so that farmers could pay their bills right after harvest and spread their sales over the entire marketing year. However, at times of low commodity prices as in 1999 and 2000 the Marketing Assistance Loan Program has become a major source of income for farmers growing wheat, rice, feed grains, oilseeds (primarily soybeans), and upland cotton.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Sep 01, 2001
Accession Number
ADA396815

Entities

Organizations

  • United States Government Accountability Office

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Materials and Manufacturing Processes

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Agriculture
  • Arkansas
  • Congress
  • Data Analysis
  • Electronic Mail
  • Governments
  • Marketing
  • National Governments
  • New Hampshire
  • New Jersey
  • New Mexico
  • New York
  • North Dakota
  • Rhode Island
  • South Dakota
  • United States
  • West Virginia

Fields of Study

  • Agricultural and Food sciences
  • Economics

Readers

  • Government and Public Administration Law.
  • Industrial Economics