Farm Credit Canada has added another 500 million dollars to its young farmer loan program.

The program is aimed at helping young people get their start in the industry.

F-C-C's Director of Pricing and Products Lindsay Folk says the program lends a maximum of 500 thousand dollars per applicant to people under the age of 40, offering a preferred interest rate and no processing fees.

The program was initially launched in 2012:

"Since then we have made almost 6000 loans, up to about 1.3 billion dollars in total and that is across the country. In Saskatchewan and Manitoba we've done about 2700 loans for a total value of just a little bit under 600 million dollars," she said.

She says the loan is geared toward people under the age of 40 looking to borrow a maximum of 500 thousand dollars to get their start in the industry.

"We would have them apply just like any other application. Perhaps they would go into one of our local FCC offices and we would sit down with them and have a discussion, hear about what their business plans are, what their ideas are, talk to them in terms of the kinds of down payments that they would be putting on and really hearing about what their plans are for their career in agriculture," she added.

Folk says with the 500 million dollar addition, this will make a total of two billion dollars available to young farmers across the country.