Subsidies for banks, rather than farmers, will be made available from next week after the Australian Government conceded to lobbying over a barely existent issue around farm finance.Loans of up to $1 million, or 50 per cent of a farm business's debt (whichever is lower) will be available, the government announced yesterday.Up to $280 million in concessional loans will be available to eligible drought-affected farm businesses for debt restructuring, operating expenses and drought recovery activities.No details on the terms of the loans were publicised yesterday. State primary industry agencies will administer the loans.Lending by governments to the rural sector increased by $370 million to $2.2 billion over the last two years through existing concessional loan programs. Finance to the rural sector has been broadly stable over recent years.Data to support the claim of a problem with farm finance, from the point of view of lenders, is scant.Stress in north Queensland cattle properties, a sector dominated by large-scale interests, is the only area of concern.National Australia Bank, for example, reported impaired and past due loans to agribusiness of 1.70 per cent at September 2013, the same ratio as for the whole of the bank's business.