Changes in the geographic structure of banking are creating both challenges and opportunities for community banks heavily involved in agricultural lending. The challenges reflect responses to potential bank takeovers or other competitive inroads in local communities by larger, more diverse banking systems. In contrast, the local, personalized, information-intensive relationships between community banks and their customers offer the opportunities for developing sustained market niches in meeting these customers' financing needs. Several factors are keys to future success in agricultural banking. One is clearly identifying viable market niches in lending programs and competing effectively within those niches. A 2nd key is the banks' ability to maintain strong customer relationships with their agricultural borrowers.