The financial condition of many farmers and farm lenders has deteriorated over the last 4 years. Land values declined by as much as 28 percent between their 1981 peak and April 1984 in some midwestern States. At current levels of interest rates and farm returns, farmers with debt amounting to over 40 percent of their total assets generally face cash flow problems and financial stress. Among the 679,000 family-size commercial farms on January 1, 1985, 229,000 farms, owing over 46 percent of all farm debt, had financial problems ranging from difficulty servicing debts to technical insolvency.