Farm Credit Canada has been lending to young people for over 50 years but in 2012 the institution announced the Young Farmer Loan, initially making available $500 million to young farmers under 40 to make purchases in agriculture.

Lindsay Folk, the Director of Pricing and Products with Farm Credit Canada, says the program features a preferred interest rate and no loan processing fees.

Lindsay Folk-Farm Credit Canada:

With this new announcement we are now making up to $2 billion available through our Young Farmer Loan Program and to date we've lent about $1.3 billion.

Each loan, the farmer can apply for up to $500,000.

Typically producers are using this for purchases.

I Would say more typically used for farmland, for buildings, those types of things.

We're only taking real estate for security and I would say in a lot of instances producers are using it for their first purchases.

We see interest in the product from across the country and really mirroring the same types of customers that we're doing in all of our lines of business so from hog producers in eastern Canada, dairy producers in B.C., crop producers in Saskatchewan, we really see the types of customers that apply for this loan is much like who we're working with in all of our lines of business.

Folk says starting farmers typically face cash flow challenges at the beginning, challenges accessing capital and trying to secure a first loan.

She says young people are important to agriculture and, it's important to provide opportunities and encourage young people to get involved.

She says anyone interested can get more information by visiting any of Farm Credit Canada's over 100 offices across the country or by visiting the FCC web site.