The Farmers Home Administration and Rural Poverty in the South

Abstract

The low-income problem in American agriculture, while not confined exclusively to the South, has long been recognized as an acute Southern problem. Of the many agricultural programs sponsored by the Federal Government, only those administered by the Farmers Home Administration have been focused primarily on this question. The FHA is a small agency within the Department of Agriculture which makes credit available on a supervised basis to low-income farmers. Its particular approach grew out of rural relief during the Great Depression and has been modified over time to meet changing conditions. In general, it has tried to raise productivity on low-income farms by providing credit and technical guidance in matters of farm and money management. The agency makes several different types of loans but the two most directly related to the low-income problem are Farm Ownership Loans (FO) for acquiring, enlarging or developing adequate farming units and Operating Loans (OL) for purposes ranging from annual production expenses to rather far-reaching farm reorganization. The ultimate solution to the poverty problem requires a substantial transfer of labor from agriculture to industry and a