what is the farmers home administration 
the farmers home administration fmha is a former u s department of agriculture usda agency created to finance and insure loans for rural families and farmers the fmha provided credit and technical assistance through housing utility business and community development programs fmha loansin 1946 congress authorized the farmers home administration to provide families with financing tools such as loans and grants aimed at helping them re establish self sufficient farming efforts following the great depression in 1961 congress authorized the fmha to broaden its bandwidth and finance general water projects and housing for non farmers in rural municipalities 1fmha has since been renamed multiple times and is currently known as usda rural development the amount of usda rural development s portfolio for its loan programs in 2021 2historical problems with fmhaby the 1990s some members of congress were becoming increasingly concerned with the large number of defaults on fmha loans and the substantial losses the agency was accruing as a result of weak lending practices in 1992 congress directed the u s government accountability office gao to conduct a study which uncovered numerous problems with the fmha 3most notably the report found that nearly 14 billion 70 of the fmha direct loan portfolio was at risk of default because the loans were held by delinquent borrowers or by individuals whose debts were rescheduled in the wake of repayment difficulties in that year fmha estimated potential losses of 1 2 billion or about 28 of its guaranteed loan program 3the gao also discovered that many field lending officials failed to comply with the loan making and loan servicing standards that the fmha established to safeguard federal financial interests 3furthermore the gao found that by sept 30 1991 the fmha acquired an estimated 3 100 farms from borrowers who had not repaid their loans overall the gao concluded that fmha management weaknesses contributed to the long standing loan management problems including inferior information systems and weak financial controls 3termination of the farmers home administrationunder the agriculture reorganization act of 1994 in october 1995 the fmha was abolished its functions were transferred to the farm service agency at the usda in later years following other reorganizations these functions were ultimately transferred to usda rural development as it is known today 14