Farm Investment Loan
Recover from severe business impact and prepare for future financial disruptions.
Purpose
Strengthen your farm business. Take steps to access markets interstate or outside Australia.
Prepare for, manage through or recover from severe business disruptions.
Use this loan to:
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Fund risk management
Prepare for natural disasters, biosecurity risks, market closures or other disruptions by diversifying markets, improving farm production or making land purchases.
-
Enhance productivity
Invest in new infrastructure, machinery or productivity enhancements to support growth.
-
Refinance debt
Refinance existing debt at our low interest rate to improve cash flow.
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Pay for expenses
Pay for operating and/or capital expenses to build your business.
Loan terms
$2m
Maximum amount
5.18%
Variable rate*
10
Year term
5
Years interest only
$0
Extra repayments
$0
Application Fee
$0
Early payout fee
No
Redraw
Percentage of total debt
At least 50% of your total debt must stay with a commercial lender.
Frequency of repayments
Monthly, quarterly, or bi-annually, tailored to the cash flow of the farm business.
Repayment structure
Five years interest only, then five years’ principal and interest over a 10-year loan term, noting the principal repayment component is actually calculated over a “notional” 15- year term. After 10 years, you can refinance any remaining balance with a commercial lender.
Full terms and conditions are available in the loan guidelines.
*Interest rates effective from 1 February 2025. Interest rates reviewed every 6 months.
Farm Investment Loan information webinar
Watch a replay of our latest information webinar to learn how a RIC Farm Investment Loan can support and strengthen eligible farm businesses.
Eligibility
Discover if a RIC loan is right for you, check your eligibility with our quick quiz.
Take our Farm Investment quick quiz
You
- are an Australian citizen or permanent resident
- contribute or plan to contribute at least 75% of your labour to the farm business(under normal circumstances)
- earn or plan to earn at least 50% of your income from the farm business (under normal circumstances)
- own or lease land and use it for farming purposes (includes agistment)
Your business
- solely or mainly sell products into supply chains that are interstate or outside Australia, or plan to in the future
- is in financial need of a loan
- has the capacity to repay the loan
- is financially viable in the long term
- has existing commercial debt
- is an eligible industry such as agriculture, horticulture, pastoral, beekeeping (apiculture), or aquaculture industry
- undertakes all primary production aspects of the business wholly within Australia
- 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
You cannot use this loan for
- purchase of private and domestic assets
- payment of private and domestic expenses
- purchase of and/or investment in non-farm assets and payment of non-farm expenses
- paying out dividends
- reimbursement for depreciation of assets tax or other statutory payments
- your own labour costs
- anything that you have already received government funding for (except to refinance debt from previous concessional loans)
- any other non-eligible use listed in the loan guidelines
Experienced a severe business impact?
To be eligible for a Farm Investment Loan you must demonstrate that your farm business is in financial need of a loan.
RIC will consider four key factors, while taking into account the individual circumstances of each farm business:
- Cause of impact outside the control of the farm business.
Significant impacts could include natural disasters, forced destocking, disease outbreaks, pest or weed incursions. - Significant financial impact.
- Duration of the impact.
You must demonstrate the impact has been (or will be over) a 2-year period. - Cumulative impacts.
For more information see section 4.2 of the Farm Investment Loan Guidelines.
Resources
Guidelines
We will assess your application against the criteria in the loan.
Read the detail on who can apply for a loan and what happens after you apply.
Document checklist
If applying online, follow the document checklist to ensure you submit a complete application.
Offline application form
We recommend you use the online application form.
Only use the offline form if you prefer to submit your application by email or post.
Complete this form on your computer, or print and fill it in by hand using a black or blue ink pen only.
- Right click on the link and select 'save target as' or 'save link as' to download the form.
- Open the form using Acrobat Reader. Download a free version of Adobe Acrobat Reader DC software.
- Save the application form regularly as you are filling it in.
- The form will not work when opened in a web browser or other software, e.g. Microsoft Edge, Chrome, Safari, Preview.
Guidelines
We will assess your application against the criteria in the loan.
Read the detail on who can apply for a loan and what happens after you apply.
Document checklist
If applying online, follow the document checklist to ensure you submit a complete application.
Offline application form
We recommend you use the online application form.
Only use the offline form if you prefer to submit your application by email or post.
Complete this form on your computer, or print and fill it in by hand using a black or blue ink pen only.
- Right click on the link and select 'save target as' or 'save link as' to download the form.
- Open the form using Acrobat Reader. Download a free version of Adobe Acrobat Reader DC software.
- Save the application form regularly as you are filling it in.
- The form will not work when opened in a web browser or other software, e.g. Microsoft Edge, Chrome, Safari, Preview.
Frequently asked questions
A negative impact to your business that is outside of your control and has (or is forecast to) significantly reduce the profitability, cashflow, or financial resilience of your farm business. An example could be forced destocking through forced sales and movement of stock to agistment or feedlots due to on farm feed depletion caused by drought, disease, or natural disaster.
RIC will also take into consideration the financial need following on from the direct financial impact, meaning what you have needed to do or what you have been unable to do as a result of the direct financial impact.
Read our explainer article for more information.
Multiple events that follow one another. This could include drought conditions followed by an unexpected market closure. The first event should have occurred within the last 5 years.
Commercial debt is debt that has been established upon commercial interest rates, terms and conditions.
This may include financial institutions and other providers where formalised loan contract is in place. The contract would typically include commercial interest rate, repayment schedule, loan term, security arrangements and mortgage documentation.
Read our explainer article for more information.
Loan scenarios
Megan and Alex typically run a 500-head beef cattle operation in Western Australia. Sale animals end up in interstate food supply chains. They applied for a RIC Farm Investment Loan after they lost 40% of breeders in a flooding event and were affected by associated increased fodder costs for the remaining cattle.
Although the flood was a one-off event, they demonstrated a financial impact over the next several years through provision of cash flows and provided photographic evidence to support their application. Refinancing part of an existing commercial bank debt, Megan and Alex used the savings in interest to gradually rebuild their breeder herd numbers, paid for transport fees, purchased feed, and other farm operating costs.
Lisa and Hugo operate a broadacre cropping property in New South Wales where they grow winter cereals including wheat, canola and barley, much of which is exported overseas. They recently came out of one of the worst droughts in their region, which affected farm productivity immensely. After a year of good rainfall, they harvested their first decent crops in 3 years but then a mouse plague damaged their stored grain, which was kept in silo bags, resulting in a downgrade to feed-quality grain.
They sowed their next crop, but successive months of above-average rainfall followed. Their farm machinery got bogged several times and they were unable to harvest a third of their grain before it downgraded in quality.
The couple applied for a Farm Investment Loan by showing the cumulative impacts on the business.
Lisa and Hugo used the loan to sink new bores to improve their property’s water security, installed permanent grain silos to secure future harvests, and upgraded roads around their property to improve machinery mobility during wet periods.
To discuss your individual business circumstances, please contact the RIC Contact Centre.
Brian is a beekeeper in Queensland. In addition to producing honey, he travels across state borders to contract his beehives to pollinate nut and berry farms. He employs one person part-time to assist him.
When a parasitic mite outbreak occurred at a neighboring apiary, authorities destroyed nearby hives and restricted the re-establishment of beehives in the region to minimise impact to the wider industry and the wild honeybee population.
Brian applied for a Farm Investment Loan by showing the financial impact over two years due to the unexpected biosecurity restrictions placed on his business and was able to provide evidence from local authorities that restrictions would be in place into the future for a minimum of 24 months.
Brian acquired new debt on the RIC concessional rate and used the funds to help build new hives and pay staff wages while his business recovered when restrictions were removed.
Interested in a Farm Investment Loan?
Explore our educational toolkit to help you understand if you are eligible for a RIC loan.
Ready to start a RIC loan application?
Check what you need before starting an application, download helpful resources and apply for a RIC loan.
Ask a question
Get in touch if you have a question about the Farm Investment Loan.