Farmers Will Need Billions In Loans In 2021: Lakeland Lender

LAKELAND, FL — Farmers were already facing a financial crisis four years before the coronavirus pandemic hit. Bad weather, tariffs and increased prices for farm sustainability contributed to what was becoming a growing crop of problems for those in the industry.

AgAmerica Lending, a national agricultural land lender headquartered in Lakeland, predicts it will provide more than a billion dollars in loans to farmers across the nation in 2021 with the added issues farmers have experienced in the past year.

"When COVID hit, our logistics supply chains were messed up," Brian Philpot, CEO of AgAmerica Lending, told Patch. "Think about it — so much food was going to restaurants, hotels, cruise ships, and then all of a sudden those retail stores shut down. Food supply had to be redirected through grocery stores and other food suppliers, and it took a while, but it finally got there."

Philpot, a Lakeland native with personal ownership in Florida farmland and timberland, said he understands the frustration farmers can experience after they've harvested a crop and it's almost fully grown, followed by many sleepless nights, and then a bad storm comes and ruins the crop.

"Our job as part of their financial solution is to try to make that risk and that burden that they have easier," Philpot said.

Farmers seek financial help for different reasons, according to Philpot: new farm technology such as drones; smart tractors that drive automatically through a GPS; new land; solar farms; smart irrigation equipment; financial hardship loans; and converting to organic crops.

According to the CEO, there are 2 million farms in America, over 90 percent of which are family-owned. The farms have been in families for generations. However, in a lot of cases, the family farm is being squeezed out because of technology and younger generations leaving rural areas.

Rural America has been shrinking for decades, and the Great Recession accelerated that contraction as rural manufacturing jobs disappeared and people moved to cities and suburbs seeking work, Time Magazine reported. The outlet also reported farmer suicides were on the rise.

A growing trend in farming for the past decade has been consolidation, and there's really no solution, Philpot said. Larger corporate farms are taking over markets that had been dominated by family farms, which are now shrinking because of their corporate competition.

"We're farmer focused, and we have 120 employees. And not all of them grew up in agriculture, but I can assure you that once they get in here, they believe in the farmer mission," Philpot said. "Our clients are special, and it's important that we emphasize what they do because it's an honorable profession."

For more information about AgAmerica, visit its website. It has locations across the nation, including Lakeland, 4030 S Pipkin Rd.