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The number of minority-owned farms is declining at a more rapid rate than other farms, which has called into question the treatment of minority farmers in receiving federal assistance. Moreover, for years, minority farmers have reported that Agriculture Department (USDA) officials do not treatment them in the same way as nonminority farmers in the conduct of the agency's programs, particularly in decisions made in USDA's country offices and district loan offices. This testimony, which draws on a January 1997 report (GAO/RCED-97-41), (1) identifies the Farm Service Agency's efforts to treat minority farmers in the same way as nonminority farmers in delivering program services; (2) examines the representation of minorities in county office staffing and on county committees in the counties with the highest number of minority farmers; and (3) examines data on the disposition of minority and nonminority farmers' applications to participate in the Agricultural Conservation Program and the direct loan program at the national level and in five county and five district loan offices for fiscal years 1995 and 1996.