It is declared to be the policy of the Congress, recognizing that a prosperous, productive agriculture is essential to a free nation and recognizing the growing need for credit in rural areas, that the farmer-owned cooperative Farm Credit System be designed to accomplish the objective of improving the income and well-being of American farmers and ranchers by furnishing sound, adequate, and constructive credit and closely related services to them, their cooperatives, and to selected farm-related businesses necessary for efficient farm operations.

It is the objective of this chapter to continue to encourage farmer- and rancher-borrowers participation in the management, control, and ownership of a permanent system of credit for agriculture which will be responsive to the credit needs of all types of agricultural producers having a basis for credit, and to modernize and improve the authorizations and means for furnishing such credit and credit for housing in rural areas made available through the institutions constituting the Farm Credit System as herein provided.

It is declared to be the policy of Congress that the credit needs of farmers, ranchers, and their cooperatives are best served if the institutions of the Farm Credit System provide equitable and competitive interest rates to eligible borrowers, taking into consideration the creditworthiness and access to alternative sources of credit for borrowers, the cost of funds, the operating costs of the institution, including the costs of any loan loss amortization under section 2254(b)[1] of this title, the cost of servicing loans, the need to retain earnings to protect borrowers’ stock, and the volume of net new borrowing. Further, it is declared to be the policy of Congress that Farm Credit System institutions take action in accordance with the Farm Credit Act Amendments of 1986 in such manner that borrowers from the institutions derive the greatest benefit practicable from that Act: Provided, That in no case is any borrower to be charged a rate of interest that is below competitive market rates for similar loans made by private lenders to borrowers of equivalent creditworthiness and access to alternative credit.

(Pub. L. 92–181, § 1.1, Dec. 10, 1971, 85 Stat. 583; Pub. L. 99–509, title I, § 1032, Oct. 21, 1986, 100 Stat. 1877; Pub. L. 115–334, title V, § 5411(1), Dec. 20, 2018, 132 Stat. 4679.)