Software Helps Identify Financially Stressed Farmers
Posted on: Wednesday, 7 April 2004, 06:00 CDT
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) -- More than 2,200 Farm Service Agency employees from around the country are being trained on computer software that will help them identify financially stressed farmers.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture is spending about $2 million to help train state loan chiefs and coordinators in Omaha over the next 22 weeks.
The system detects potential problems in farmers' financial information and alerts loan officers. Known as WebEquity, it was developed by Equity Consultants Inc., or ECI of Glenwood, Iowa.
"One of the benefits of this is to be able to identify farmers before they get into trouble or become delinquent," said Carolyn Cooksie, the agency's deputy administrator for farm loan programs.
Most private farm lenders - including 292 banks in Nebraska - already use WebEquity. Those private industry links were a major draw for the federal agency when it began looking for a new customer management system more than two years ago. The software will allow the agency, banks and producers to share the same information.
A lender of last resort, the Farm Service Agency has loans out to more than 88,000 farmers nationally who couldn't obtain credit through private lenders. Another 39,000 farm loans are secured by the FSA.
The software also will help the agency collect data to react to national trends. In the late 1990s, Congress asked the agency how many hog producers with government loans could be in financial jeopardy because of record low prices. But the agency couldn't effectively track or identify potentially insolvent farms.
By the end of the summer, the agency will be able to track date at the national, state or county levels to examine the impact of livestock-price fluctuations, floods or droughts in targeted areas of the country.
Producers next year will be able to tap into the agency's program to update information on their farms and see projections for income and net worth. Eventually, farmers will be able to apply for agency loans online.
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