Farmers have snapped up the $25 million in loans offered by the Manitoba government to help farmers through the cash crunch.
And there are signs the demand for producer recovery loans will exceed the original offering by at least 25 percent. Farmers have swamped the Manitoba Agricultural Credit Corp. with a second wave of applications for loans.
The wave began when farmers starting doing the math for the Agriculture Income Disaster Assistance program.
The federal and provincial governments released applications for the AIDA program in early March. Many farmers realized they won’t receive as much aid as they hoped, and others found out they won’t qualify, said Gill Shaw, general manager of MACC.
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So they’ve turned to the MACC loans of up to $50,000 for individuals and up to $100,000 for corporations, partnerships and co-operatives, said Shaw.
As of March 30, MACC had dispersed 221 loans worth $10.6 million, and approved another 280 worth $14.5 million. Another 500 applications worth $7 million were being processed.
Shaw said MACC field staff have been busy since the program was announced in late December.
“We’re keeping on top of it and keeping even but we’re not getting ahead,” said Shaw.
Linda McNair, general manager of Keystone Agricultural Producers, said some producers have told her they face a six- to eight-week wait for loans.
If seeding starts early this year, McNair said the lobby group worries farmers won’t have the money to buy inputs. Help from AIDA won’t be available in time, she said, and MACC loans might not be either.
McNair said many farmers have phoned KAP to complain that the AIDA program design excludes them because they have negative margins, or have had one or two poor years out of the past three.
Shaw said the province’s initial $25 million for emergency loans announced by agriculture minister Harry Enns was a flexible amount. He said MACC has a tentative agreement with the government to extend more loans than initially planned.
Shaw noted 10 to 12 percent of loan applicants have been referred to the Manitoba Farm Mediation Board to examine their financial options.
Other farmers obtained debt restructuring loans rather than emergency loans, he said.
Only two farmers have been rejected.
Applications and loan approvals have been evenly divided across the province, said Shaw. MACC has five offices in each of the Interlake/southeast, southwest and northwest regions.
“We are not seeing a great deal of difference between those three regions,” he said.
