Farmer Mac: Empowering Agricultural Lending - An Overview

Farmer Mac is also known formally as the Federal Agricultural Mortgage Corporation. The program was created by Congress in 1988 as a way of making it easier for agricultural lenders to provide credit to farmers, rural homeowners, ranchers and companies.

What Farmer Mac does

Farmer Mac purchase loans from lenders, which in turn gives them enough money to fund additional loans. Farmer Mac gets the money to make purchases by issuing securities or debts, which are backed by loans. Then, they sell them into capital markets.  

Three Programs

There are three distinct Farmer Mac programs. They include Farmer Mac I, Farmer Mac II, and Farmer Mac III.

The Farmer Mac I Program includes the purchasing of loans from lenders; the Farmer Mac II Program is the process of providing secondary market funding; the Farmer Mac III Program combines programs I and II, and includes the buying of first lien loans which are guaranteed via federal or state programs.

The Federal Agricultural Mortgage Corporation is owned by stockholders, and is publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol AGM.