FIDA Agricultural Loans (Fondo de Innovación para el Desarrollo Agrícola) (FIDA)

FIDA (Fondo de Innovación para el Desarrollo Agrícola), a public subsidiary of the Autoridad de Tierras under the Puerto Rico Department of Agriculture, provides direct loans to farmers, agro-businesses, and cooperatives for equipment, infrastructure, project development or expansion, raw materials, and livestock replacement.

Puerto Rico farmers, agro-businesses, and cooperatives. A Young Agroentrepreneurs category is reserved for applicants age 35 or under.

Loan categories: Regular (6–10% interest); Young Agroentrepreneurs (age ≤35, 5.75%, $5,000–$35,000); Small Transactions (≤$10,000); and financing of CSA crop-insurance premiums (5.75%).

No public application route is published — financing is arranged by inquiry. FIDA's page on the Puerto Rico Department of Agriculture site sets out its loan categories and interest rates in detail but publishes no application form, no portal, no submission address, no document checklist and no deadline. It names who may ask for each product without saying how: for the regular loan, "pueden solicitar los agricultores, las agro empresas, agro industrias, cooperativas agrícolas y empresas de valor añadido" (farmers, agribusinesses, agro-industries, agricultural cooperatives and value-added enterprises may apply). So the realistic first step is to call FIDA and ask to be assessed; expect eligibility and terms to be worked out case by case against FIDA's internal regulation, which is not published on the site.

One trap on that page. The only FIDA form published there is the "Formulario para Talleres Educativos de FIDA" — a sign-up sheet for FIDA's educational workshops, asking for your farm name, region and which courses you want. It is not a loan application, and submitting it does not start a financing request.

The two document requirements the page does state. For financing a Corporación de Seguros Agrícolas (CSA) crop-insurance premium at 5.75%: "Entre los requisitos, presentar evidencia de pago administrativo y endoso de póliza a favor de FIDA" — evidence of the administrative payment, plus an endorsement of the policy in FIDA's favour. For the small-transaction tier: agricultural financing "que no exceda de los $10,000 se necesitará la aprobación del director(a) y cumplir con el reglamento de FIDA" — director sign-off under FIDA's own regulation. Nothing else in the way of paperwork is published for any category.

Timing — none published. No round, cycle, sign-up window or deadline appears anywhere on the page. Treat intake as open-ended and driven by your own inquiry.

Who to ask. FIDA is a public subsidiary of the Autoridad de Tierras de Puerto Rico, and the Authority is the reachable front door: switchboard (787) 723-9090, Ave. Fernández Juncos #1311, Santurce PR 00907 (postal Box 9745, Santurce 00908-9745), per the PR.gov agency directory. The Department of Agriculture takes general enquiries through https://www.agricultura.pr.gov/contactanos and publishes eight regional offices with named directors, emails and phones — for example Región de Ponce, regionponce@agricultura.pr.gov, (787) 842-5210; Región de Mayagüez, regionmayaguez@agricultura.pr.gov, (787) 832-5022; Región de Arecibo, regionarecibo@agricultura.pr.gov, (787) 878-2028. Those regional offices are the department's published local contact points; the site does not say they process FIDA loans, so ask them to route you to FIDA rather than expecting to file there.