FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS OF A NEW FARM POLICY ENVIRONMENT

The 1996 Federal Agriculture Improvement and Reform (FAIR) Act dramatically affects the decision-making environment of farms by introducing provisions for reducing farm income support payments. These program changes are likely to affect not only farm incomes, but also farm capital asset markets. The combined effect of these two financial variables is expected to alter the risk position and the debt repayment capacity on farms. Empirical results of this analysis indicate that the absence of farm income support payments reduces debt repayment capacity and increases the risk position on a representative Louisiana cotton-soybean farm.