You
- are an Australian citizen or permanent resident
- contribute at least 75% of your labour to the small business (under normal circumstances)
- earn at least 50% of your income from the small business (under normal circumstances)
Your business
- is in financial need of a loan
- is not a farm business
- has fewer than 20 employees other than casual employees
- supplies goods or services relating to primary production to farm businesses in affected areas
- has had a reduction in the turnover; or an increase in unsecured debt as a result of drought
- has the capacity to repay the loan
- is financially viable in the long term
- has existing commercial debt
- is registered for tax purposes in Australia with an ABN and is registered for GST
- operates as a sole trader, trust, partnership or private company
- is not under external administration or bankruptcy
You must
- provide security for the loan
- secure the support of your commercial lender for the proposed loan
- repay the loan
Manage your small business through the drought
Use this loan to
- refinance your debt
- pay for operating expenses
- pay suppliers
- pay salaries, wages and rent
You cannot use this loan for
- purchase of private and domestic assets
- payment of private and domestic expenses
- capital expenditure
- purchase of and/or investment in non-small business assets and expenses
- payment of tax and statutory payments
- your own labour costs
- reimbursement for depreciation of assets
- payment of dividends or other distributions of equity to owners
- activities funded under other Commonwealth and state or territory government programs.
Loan terms
Quick facts
| Amount | Up to $500,000 | Term | 10 years |
| Early settlement | No fee | Interest rate | 3.04% variable rate |
| Apply | Anytime | Application fee | No fee |
| Extra repayments | No fee | Redraw | Not available |
More terms
Percentage of total debt — at least 50% of your total debt must stay with a commercial lender.
Frequency of repayments — tailored to the cash flow of the small business.
Repayment structure — First five years interest only, then five years’ principal and interest over a 10-year loan term.
The structure of principal repayments will be dependent upon a number of key factors, including the loan amount, the purpose of the funding and the nature of the security.
The principal of the loan may be repaid (wholly or partly) at any time during the term of the loan without incurring a fee.
Full terms and conditions are available in the loan guidelines.
Before you apply
You may need to contact your trusted financial advisor or a Rural Financial Counsellor to help you fill out your application.
Find a Rural Financial Counsellor near you
You need to check
- you meet the loan eligibility criteria
- you understand the terms of the loan
- you have read the detail in the loan guidelines
You need to have
- Australian Business Number (ABN)
- 3 years' financial history
- identity documents
- proof of your eligibility
- your business cash flow budget
Ask us a question
We are here to help
- Call us on 1800 875 675
- Email us through our online contact form
Apply
There are 2 ways to apply for an AgBiz Drought Loan:
- Using our online application form
- Using our PDF application form
Please note
Before you start, talk to your commercial lender. Let them know you plan to apply for a RIC loan.
An application must be supported by the most recent finalised financial statements that are to be no more than 18 months old at the time of the RIC loan assessment.
An application received between July and December in any year can use financial statements to 30 June of the prior calendar year (if the most recent financial year statements are unavailable).
An application received between January and June must include finalised financial statements to 30 June of the prior calendar year.
Submit your application online
- Follow the AgBiz Drought Loan Document Checklist to ensure you submit a complete application.
- The online form has mandatory fields and documents. You must supply this information to progress to the next stage of the form.
- You must submit all required information so we can start assessment of your application and provide an outcome as quickly as possible.
- Once you begin your online loan application you will have 30 days to submit it. You will receive a reminder at 10, 20 and 30 days.
- If you have any questions we encourage you to talk to our loan assessment team. You can call them on 1800 875 675.
We encourage you to submit your loan application online.
Click here to apply for an AgBiz Drought Loan online
Submit your PDF application by email or post
- Follow the AgBiz Document Checklist on page 1 of the PDF application form. We can’t start assessing your application until we get all the information we ask for, including attachments.
- If you have any questions we encourage you to talk to our loan assessment team. You can call them on 1800 875 675.
AgBiz Drought Loan Application Form
If using the PDF application form, submit your application to us applications@ric.gov.au or send to:
Regional Investment Corporation, PO Box 653, Orange, NSW, 2800.
You can complete this form on a computer (Fillable PDF) or you can print it and fill it in by hand. You are not able to save the form when opened in a browser.
To use the Fillable PDF application form you must download it to your desktop first. Right click on the link above and select 'save target as' or 'save link as' and download the form to your desktop.
Open the form on your desktop using Acrobat Reader. Make sure you save the application form regularly as you are filling it in. The fillable PDF form will not function correctly when it is opened in a web browser or other software, for example Microsoft Edge, Chrome, Firefox, Preview.
You can download a free version of Adobe Acrobat Reader DC software.
Help and support
Help
We will assess your application against the criteria in the loan guidelines
We may need to contact you by phone or email to discuss your application. We will write to you to confirm the outcome of your application.
Learn more about the RIC loan process.
Support
The Rural Financial Counselling Service (RFCS) can help with your application.
Find a Rural Financial Counsellor near you
Visit our help page for a list of support services.
Variation Request
Request a variation to your loan agreement by submitting updated information.
A Variation Request is needed where circumstances trigger a change in the underlying security for your loan e.g. sale or purchase of land, change of loan amounts with your primary lender.
Decision Review Request
If you disagree with our decision on your loan application, you can request a review of that decision.
You must submit the Decision Review Request in writing to us within 30 business days of receipt of the decision notification.
Resources
Application forms
Complete the application form and send it with supporting documents to applications@ric.gov.au
Download: Right click on the form and save on your local device as an Adobe Acrobat Document before you begin filling out the form.
Cash flow budget
You must include your business cash flow budget with your application.
We will use this to help assess your financial position, and your ability to repay the loan.
If you do not have your own budget spreadsheet, you can use our template.
Download:
This template may not meet government accessibility requirements. Contact us for help.
Guarantor asset and liability statement
You may be required to provide a guarantor's asset and liability statement with your application.
Download:
Eligible area
To be eligible for an AgBiz Drought loan, your small business must be, or have been, supplying goods or services relating to primary production to farm businesses located in an affected area. You can check the location of farm businesses in affected areas by entering their address or GPS coordinates into the eligible area map below.
These are ‘affected areas’ as defined by the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification.
Find your location
- Enter your address or GPS coordinates into the search bar.
- Use the zoom function (– and +) until you can see the boundaries of your entire farm business.
Print or save your map
- Select the print icon to activate the ‘Print’ pop-up box.
- Add a custom title (e.g. your farm business address).
- Open the print dropdown menu and choose MAP_ONLY. Your map may take a few minutes to generate.
- Select the Printout link to print a copy or save it to your computer.
- To save, right click on the image and select the option to save picture as.
- If you are having trouble printing your map, save it to your computer first.
Map of eligible areas in Australia