§1981e Planting and production history guidelines

Summary

The Secretary must use fair methods to figure future farm yields for a loan applicant when past production was hurt by a disaster declared under the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act (42 U.S.C. 5121 et seq.). These methods can include on-site inspections when possible or using county or State yield averages. When averaging past yields to set future yields (except for loans under subchapter III), the Secretary must let a borrower or applicant drop the one crop year with the lowest actual or county average yield if the farm was affected by disasters in at least two of the years. A farmer is “affected” if the Secretary finds their operations were substantially harmed by a U.S. natural disaster or a President-declared major disaster or emergency under the Stafford Act, even if the farm is not inside a declared disaster area. This rule applies to all actions under this chapter that use farm yields, including making loans and guarantees, servicing loans, and credit sales (except loans under subchapter III).