KNOX – Farmers may have the opportunity to have their student loan debt forgiven.

Since 2014, several years ahead of the new Excelsior Scholarship that provides New Yorkers with free tuition for full-time study at state universities, the state has offered student loan forgiveness of up to $50,000 for farming for up to five years in the state.

The loan must be for an undergraduate degree at an approved New York State college. According to Gary Kleppel, a professor at the University at Albany and a farmer in Knox, there are six schools where it is approved: Cornell’s public colleges,  State University of New York College of Agriculture and Technology at Cobleskill, SUNY Morrisville, Alfred State University, SUNY Farmingdale, and SUNY Delhi.

“Farmers are not stupid people,” said Kleppel, naming acquaintances who are educated and farm. According to Kleppel, the skills acquired can potentially help a farmer, such as his own doctorate in biology or his wife’s study of mathematics.

“You use that, you use that education,” he said, but later added, “The degree doesn’t matter as much what you know and how you apply it.”

The program is also designed to help the status of farming in New York State. According to Aleah R. Wendell, of the New York State Higher Education Service Corporation, for every farmer 35 years old or younger, there are two in the state aged 65 or older. The program is designed to encourage a younger generation to farm.

Those eligible are New York State residents who have been living in the state continuously for a year or more, have attended one of the approved state colleges, and have completed a degree program within the last two years.

The applicant must also agree to operate a farm full-time for the next five years. Loans up to $50,000 are forgiven, with payments of $10,000 every year for those five years.