By Jared StrongMore than 13,000 farmers have benefited from nearly $800 million in federal debt relief, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack said Tuesday. The assistance came from a new federal initiative to erase farmers’ loan delinquencies to the U.S. Department of Agriculture and private lenders or to resolve their remaining debts after foreclosure. The government’s farm loan obligations for its 2022 fiscal year, which ended Sept. 30, totaled about $5.8 billion dollars, according to USDA records. Pennsylvania’s farm loan obligations totaled $69.4 million, according to a federal data sheet. Those northeastern states had a combined total of federal farm loan obligations of just $11 million during the 2022 fiscal year, USDA records show.

Source: thestar October 19, 2022 16:44 UTC