The Federal Government may have some angry farmers on the doorsteps of Parliament House soon, with new data showing that almost half of all applicants are getting knocked back for drought-related concessional loans.The government announced the new Drought Assistance Concessional Loans program in the 2016/17 Budget to help alleviate the financial pressure on rural producers saddled with commercial debt.Under the program, which is offered through the Commonwealth's Farm Business Concessional Loans Scheme, farmers located in areas severely affected by low rainfall have been eligible since 1 November last year for special loans priced between 2.47 per cent to 3.09 per cent.The concessional rates are more than 50 per cent cheaper than commercial rates on secured farm loans marketed by Commonwealth Bank, ANZ and Westpac.The cheap loans, which are repayable over ten years, are designed to help farmers restructure commercial debt and to fund capital investment in drought recovery initiatives.Farmers can borrow up to A$1 million under the program, so long as their government-funded loans do not exceed 50 per cent of their total borrowings.Applicants also have to demonstrate that their farm properties are located in drought-affected areas using rainfall data published by the Bureau of Meteorology.However, disclosures made by the Department of Agriculture and Water Resources to the Senate inquiry into farm lending has lifted the lid on how trifling the loan program has been.In a written answer to a question from Nationals senator John Williams, the department revealed that it had rejected 111 loan submissions since 1 November, which equates to around 47 per cent of all applicants.In the ten months to the end of August the department approved 126 loans worth $79.05 million.The government has allocated around $100 million to fund loans made through the program in 2017/18, but this evidently appears inadequate to meet demand from financially stressed farm businesses.Funding for the concessional farm lending is due to run out at the end of June next year when the government rolls out the Regional Investment Corporation, which is better known throughout rural industries as "Barnaby's bank".