OCTABLOG

Credit for Canadian Farmers seeking financial support

  

 Email Article  

Tweet  

  

  

Good news for Canadian Farmers looking for a break.  The Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food has made it easier for Farmers to have access to credit for the establishment, improvement and development of farms.  This newly ammended funding supports the renewal of Canada's weakening agricultural sector and enables co-operatives to have better access to market opportunities.

The CALA program (Canadian Agricultural Loans Act) features up to $500,000 in loans for Lands and Buildings, and up to $350,000 for other loan purposes.

Eligible applicants must meet one of the following criteria:

• Be established farmers

• Beginning/start-up farmers (less than 6 years of farming)

• Agricultural co-operatives with a majority (50% +1) farmer membership 

• Farmers assuming ownership of the family farm

The terms for the loans are pretty flexible- maximum term for loans is 10 years, with 15 years for loans on land purchases. Interest to be paid on a floating rate is the lender’s prime rate plus a maximum of one percent. Interest to be paid on a fixed-term rate uses a formula based on the lender’s residential mortgage rate plus a maximum of one percent.

The new ammendments to CALA was implemented in June 2009 and since then, the program issued over $146.6 million in loans to Canadian farmers, including $17.7 million in loans for new farmers.

With the help of CALA's finiancial support to the Canadian farmers and Agricultural co-operatives have a bright future to look forward to.

Check out: www.agr.gc.ca/cala, fgp-pgf@agr.gc.ca or call 1-888-346-2511 for more info.