RIDGELAND, Miss. — The board of directors of Southern AgCredit, a rural lending cooperative, returned a record $11.9 million in cash patronage dividends to its customer-owners in March.     

The member-owned cooperative returns surplus earnings to borrowers after it has met its needs for a strong capital base. The return of patronage dividends to customers effectively reduced the interest rate paid by each borrower by one percentage point on average.

“Patronage is a unique benefit of doing business with a cooperative such as Southern AgCredit,” said Scott Bell, Southern AgCredit’s board chairman. “When our co-op is successful, our stockholders benefit. We’ve had consecutive record-breaking years despite the pandemic and the high-interest rate environment.  That is a testament to the hard work that goes on at Southern AgCredit.”

Southern AgCredit is a full-service co-op lender that specializes in financing rural land and agricultural operations in Mississippi and Louisiana. It is a member of the nationwide Farm Credit System, the nation’s largest source of loans for agriculture, agribusiness, rural real estate and country homes. For more information, visit SouthernAgCredit.com.

Financial results discussed here are preliminary and unaudited. Please visit SouthernAgCredit.com this spring to see our complete results.

###