ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, November 26, 1996 TAG: 9611260123
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C3 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: ALBERTA
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
The U.S. Department of Agriculture discriminates against black farmers by taking longer to process their loan requests and demanding more collateral from them than from white farmers, a group of black farmers said.
About 15 Southside Virginia farmers made the charges last week while demanding relief from USDA foreclosures. They said the department's lending programs are helping drive them out of business.
The growers met to lay plans for taking part in a march on Washington next month led by the National Black Farmers Association, according to local representatives John Boyd, a chicken farmer in Mecklenburg County, and Linwood Brown Jr., a tobacco farmer in Brunswick County.
``We're here at a time of need,'' Boyd told the group. ``We have been suffering for years.''
Boyd said some county offices of the Farm Service Administration routinely take an average 222 days to process a loan application for black farmers, compared with just 60 days for white farmers.
That means farmers who borrow money to buy seed and fertilizer at the beginning of the season often receive the money after it's too late to plant, he said.
Boyd also accused the FSA of asking blacks for more collateral than whites and telling blacks there is no money available when their white neighbors are getting money.
Some of the pressures the black farmers face are the same ones white farmers face, Boyd said, but discriminatory practices aggravate the problems.
Chuck Berge at the FSA Southeast regional office in Washington said he knew nothing about the allegations but would check into them.
The Virginia farmers will join farmers and supporters from all over the Southeast in Washington on Dec.12 to demand that pending foreclosures be stopped and property returned.
They also want a settlement negotiated for past unfair practices and new programs to help young blacks stay in farming, Boyd said.
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