An ag banker I know, has had the conversations with customers explaining that they would be better off taking their equity, putting it in mutual funds and worki

An ag banker I know, has had the conversations with customers explaining that they would be better off taking their equity, putting it in mutual funds and working as a greeter in WalMart. The problem is one of scale. If a small farmer is underleveraged, its simply not worth the time to farm. The return on equity is too low. If he levers up too much, then every season is literally betting the farm. (With the caveat that the size of the equity stake and rate of leverage vary very much from crop to crop. Grains are very different than fruits and vegetables)