planted to cotton because of drought, flood, other natural disaster, or a condition beyond the control of the producer shall be considered to be an acreage planted to cotton. For the purpose of this paragraph, the Secretary shall, in the event producers of wheat or feed grains are permitted to do so, permit producers of cotton to have acreage devoted to soybeans, wheat, feed grains, sugar, castor beans, triticale, oats, rye or such other crops as the Secretary may deem appropriate33 considered as devoted to the production of cotton to such extent and subject to such terms and conditions as the Secretary determines will not impair the effective operation of the cotton or soybean program.

(3) If no acreage is planted to cotton for any three consecutive crop years on any farm which had a farm base acreage allotment for such years, such farm shall lose its base acreage allotment. (f) Effective for the 1971 through 197734 crops, any part of any farm base acreage allotment on which upland cotton will not be planted and which is voluntarily surrendered to the county committee shall be deducted from the farm base acreage allotment for such farm and may be reapportioned by the county committee to other farms in the same county receiving farm base acreage allotments in amounts determined by the county committee to be fair and reasonable on the basis of past acreage of upland cotton, land, labor, equipment available for the production of upland cotton, crop rotation practices, and soil and other physical facilities affecting the production of upland cotton. If all of the acreage voluntarily surrendered is not needed in the county, the county committee may surrender the excess acreage to the State committee to be used to make adjustments in farm base acreage allotments for other farms in the State adversely affected by abnormal conditions affecting plantings or to correct inequities or to prevent hardship. Any farm base acreage allotment released under this provision shall be regarded for the purpose of establishing future farm base acreage allotments as having been planted on the farm and in the county where the release was made rather than on the farm and in the county to which the allotment was transferred: Provided, That, notwithstanding any other provision of law, any part of any farm base acreage allotment for any crop year may be permanently released in writing to the county committee by the owner and operator of the farm and reapportioned as provided herein. Acreage released under this subsection shall be credited to the State in determining future allotments.

(g) Any farm receiving any base acreage allotment through release and reapportionment or sale, lease, or transfer shall, as a condition to the right to receive such allotment, comply with the set-aside requirements of section 103(e)(4) of the Agricultural Act of 1949, as amended, applicable to such acreage as determined by the Secretary.

(h) Notwithstanding any other provision of this Act, if the Secretary determines for any year that because of drought, flood, other natural disaster, or a condition beyond the control of the producer a portion of the farm base acreage allotment in a county cannot be timely planted or replanted in such year, he may authorize for such year the transfer

3 Words from "soybeans" through "appropriate" substituted for "soybeans, wheat or feed grains" by sec. 1(19) of the Agriculture and Consumer Protection Act of 1973, P.L. 93-86, 87 Stat. 233, Aug. 10, 1973, effective beginning with the 1974 crop.

Sec. 1(19) of the Agriculture and Consumer Protection Act of 1973, P.L. 93-86, 87 Stat. 233, Aug. 10, 1973, changed "1971, 1972, and 1973" to "1971 through 1977".

of all or a part of such cotton acreage for any farm in the county so affected to another farm in the county or in any other nearby35 county on which one or more of the producers on the farm from which the transfer is to be made will be engaged in the production of upland cotton and will share in the proceeds thereof, in accordance with such regulations as the Secretary may prescribe. Any farm base acreage allotment transferred under this subsection shall be regarded as planted to upland cotton on the farm and in the county and State from which transfer is made for purposes of establishing future farm, county and State allotments. (7 U.S.C. 1350.)

35 Sec. 1(19) of the Agriculture and Consumer Protection Act of 1973, P.L. 93-86, 87 Stat. 233, Aug. 10, 1973, substituted "any other nearby" for "an adjoining" county, effective beginning with the 1974 crop.

PART V-MARKETING QUOTAS-RICE

LEGISLATIVE FINDINGS

SEC. 351. (a) The marketing of rice constitutes one of the great basic industries of the United States with ramifying activities which directly affect interstate and foreign commerce at every point, and stable conditions therein are necessary to the general welfare. Rice produced for market is sold on a Nation-wide market, and, with its products, moves almost wholly in interstate and foreign commerce from the producer to the ultimate consumer. The farmers producing such commodity are subject in their operations to uncontrollable natural causes, in many cases such farmers carry on their farming operations on borrowed money or leased lands, and are not so situated as to be able to organize effectively, as can labor and industry, through unions and corporations enjoying Government sanction and protection for joint economic action. For these reasons, among others, the farmers are unable without Federal assistance to control effectively the orderly marketing of such commodity with the result that abnormally excessive supplies thereof are produced and dumped indiscriminately on the Nation-wide market. (b) The disorderly marketing of such abnormally excessive supplies affects, burdens, and obstructs interstate and foreign commerce by (1) materially affecting the volume of such commodity marketed therein, (2) disrupting the orderly marketing of such commodity therein, (3) reducing the prices for such commodity with consequent injury and destruction of such commerce in such commodity, and (4) causing a disparity between the prices for such commodity in interstate and foreign commerce and industrial products therein, with a consequent diminution of the volume of interstate and foreign commerce in industrial products.

(c) Whenever an abnormally excessive supply of rice exists, the marketing of such commodity by the producers thereof directly and substantially affects interstate and foreign commerce in such commodity and its products, and the operation of the provisions of this part becomes necessary and appropriate in order to promote, foster, and maintain an orderly flow of such supply in interstate and foreign commerce. (7 U.S.C. 1351.)

NATIONAL ACREAGE ALLOTMENT AND ALLOCATION

[Sec. 352, as it appears in the text, is applicable only to the
1976-1981 crops of rice.]

SEC. 352. (a) The Secretary shall establish for each of the 1976 through 1981 crops of rice a national acreage allotment in the amount of one million eight hundred thousand acres.

Sec. 101 of the Rice Production Act of 1975, P.L. 94-214, 90 Stat. 181, Feb. 16, 1976, completely amended Sec. 352, effective only for the 1976 and 1977 crops of rice. Sec. 701 of the Food and Agriculture Act of 1977, P.L. 95-113, 91 Stat. 940, Sept. 29, 1977, further amended this section by substituting "1976 through 1981" for "1976 and 1977". The suspended version will once again take effect with the 1982 crop and reads as follows:

"SEC. 352. The national acreage allotment of rice for any calendar year shall be that acreage which the Secretary determines will, on the basis of the national average yield of rice for the five calendar years immediately preceding the calendar year for which such national average yield is determined, produce an amount of rice adequate, together with the estimated carry-over from the marketing year ending in such calendar year, to make available a supply for the marketing year commencing in such calendar year not less than the normal supply: Provided, however, That for 1956 no national acreage allotment shall be established which is less than 85 per centum of the final allotment established for the immediately preceding year. Such national acreage allotment shall be proclaimed not later than December 31 of each year."

(b) The national acreage allotment for each such crop of rice shall be apportioned by the Secretary to farms, and in producer States and administrative areas, to producers on the basis of the rice allotments established for the 1975 crop as adjusted in accordance with subsection (c) of this section: Provided, That not to exceed 1 per centum of the national acreage allotment apportioned within each State may be reserved by the State committee for (1) apportionment to new rice farms and new rice producers on the basis of the following factors: suitability of the land for the production of rice, the extent to which the farm operator (or produced in the case of a producer allotment) is dependent on income from farming for his livelihood, the production of rice on other farms owned, operated, or controlled by such person, and such other factors as the State committee determines should be considered for the purpose of establishing fair and equitable rice allotments; (2) making adjustments in farm allotments to correct inequities or to prevent hardship; and (3) making corrections in farm or producer allot

ments.

(c) (1) If for any crop the total acreage planted to rice on a farm is less than the rice allotment for the farm (or in producer administrative areas, the producer allotments allocated to the farm), the farm or producer allotment used as a base for the succeeding crop shall be reduced by the percentage by which such planted acreage was less than the allotment for the farm, but such reduction shall not exceed 20 per centum of the farm or producer allotment for the preceding crop; except that if not less than 90 per centum of the farm acreage allotment is planted to rice, the farm shall be considered to have an acreage planted to rice equal to 100 per centum of such allotment. For purposes of this paragraph, an acreage on the farm which the Secretary determines was not planted to rice because of drought, flood, other natural disaster, or a condition beyond the control of the producer shall be considered to be an acreage planted to rice. For the purpose of this paragraph, the Secretary may permit producers of rice to have acreage devoted to soybeans, wheat, feed grains, sugar, castor beans, triticale, oats, cotton, rye, or such other crops as the Secretary may deem appropriate, considered as devoted to the production of rice to such extent and subject to such terms and conditions as the Secretary determines will not impair the effective operation of the rice program.

(2) If no acreage is planted (or regarded as planted) to rice for two consecutive crop years on any farm which had a farm acreage allotment for such years or for any producer which had a producer allotment for such years, such farm or producer shall lose its allotment.

(3) Notwithstanding the provisions of paragraphs (1) and (2) of this subsection, no farm or producer allotment shall be reduced or lost through failure to plant, if the cooperator elects not to receive payments for the portion of the farm or producer allotment not planted to which he would otherwise be entitled under the provisions of section 101(g) of the Agricultural Act of 1949.

(d) Notwithstanding any other provision of this Act, if the Secretary determines for any year that, because of drought, flood, other natural disaster, or a condition beyond the control of the person involved in the

production of rice, none or only part of the acres of an allotment can be timely planted or replanted by or for such person in such year, the Secretary may authorize for such year the transfer of the total number of such acres which are so affected to another farm in the same or any nearby county, but within the same administrative area, on which one or more persons on the farm from which the transfer is made will be engaged in the production of rice and will share in the proceeds thereof, in accordance with such regulations as the Secretary may prescribe. Any allotment, or portion thereof, transferred under this subsection shall be regarded as planted to rice on the farm from which the transfer is made for purposes of establishing future farm allotments. For the purpose of determining the amount of payments and loans made under section 101(g) of the Agricultural Act of 1949 with regard to farms to which allotments, or portions thereof, are transferred under this subsection, the Secretary shall establish a farm yield for any such farm for which there is no established yield.

(e) (1) The Secretary shall permit the owner and operator of any farm for which a farm acreage allotment has been established to sell or lease all or any part, or the right to all or any part of such allotment, to any other owner or operator of a farm in the same administrative area, or to transfer all or any part of such allotment to any other farm owned or controlled by him in the same administrative area. The Secretary shall also permit the person for whom a producer allotment has been established to sell or lease all or any part of such allotment to any other person in the same administrative area.

(2) (A) If a producer in a State in which farm rice acreage allotments are determined on the basis of past production of rice by the producer on the farm dies, his history of rice production shall be apportioned in the whole or in part among his heirs or devisees according to the extent to which they may continue, or have continued, his farming operations, if satisfactory proof of such succession of farming operations is furnished the Secretary.

(B) Upon dissolution of a partnership in a State in which farm rice acreage allotments are determined on the basis of past production of rice by the producer on the farm, the partnership's history of rice production shall be divided among the partners in such proportion as agreed upon in writing by the partners.

(C) Any part of the farm rice acreage allotment on which rice will not be planted and which is voluntarily surrendered to the county committee shall be deducted from the allotment to such farm and may be reapportioned by the county committee to other farms in the same county in amounts determined by the county committee to be fair and reasonable. Any allotment surrendered under this subparagraph shall be regarded for purposes of this subsection as having been planted on the farm from which it was surrendered.

(f) Any acreage planted to rice in excess of the farm or producer acreage allotment in the crop years 1976 through 1981 shall not be taken into account in establishing farm, or producer acreage allotments in any year following such period. (7 U.S.C. 1352.)