Agricultural lending has changed dramatically since the freewheeling ways of the 1970s. Burned by too many farm bankruptcies, lenders are not only more cautious but so are borrowers. A team of UC researchers affiliated with the UC Agricultural Issues Center at UC Davis recently completed a major study of how the lending world has changed for California farmers. The handshake relationship that was common in agricultural lending is a thing of the past, according to Steven Blank, a UC Davis Cooperative Extension specialist in farm financial management. For instance, as a result of California's recent drought and increasing environmental restrictions, some lenders are now requiring a "water availability" questionnaire as a standard part of a loan application. "One of the major trends this 'new risk environment' has fostered is a significant shift away from field crops to higher value fruits and vegetables such as tomatoes, peaches and strawberries," says Blank. Ironically, says Blank, some of these higher value crops are actually riskier to grow. As a result, growers may hedge their "crop portfolios" by growing riskier crops on only part of their land.