Surveys in several French departements aim at evctluating the effects of farm credit policies. For each farm in the sample, data from statistical surveys, the so-called structural surveys of the ministry of Agriculture, were paired with data on loans granted by the Credit Agricole Banks. For the 1970 to 1979 period, distribution of loans to farms appears in clear agreement with the objectives of agricultural policy, particularly through the strenghtening of a shrinking group of high productive farms. This does not preclude the existence, in certain regions and types of farm, of cases where loans had no apparent effects on farm production. The generai income crisis reveals that certain groups of farms face an uncertain future and, in many cases, the main use of loans is to fill the gaps in inadequate monetary incomes. In the long term, increases in farm production took place under conditions of permanent inequalities in credit distribution. Some well sized farms now experience serious monetary difficultes. It is however small farms, with little or no debts, which silently continue to disappear in large numbers.