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Secretary shall conduct a referendum, by secret ballot, of farmers engaged in the production of cotton in the calendar year in which the referendum is held, to determine whether such farmers are in favor of or opposed to the quota so proclaimed: Provided, That *** 78 If more than one-third of the farmers voting in the referendum oppose the national marketing quota, such quota shall become ineffective upon proclamation of the results of the referendum. The Secretary shall proclaim the results of any referendum held hereunder within thirty days after the date of such referendum. (7 U.S.C. 1343.)

[PRELIMINARY ALLOTMENTS FOR 1982 CROP OF UPLAND COTTON Food and Agriculture Act of 1977.78 SEC. 606. Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the permanent State, county, and farm base acreage allotments for the 1977 crop of upland cotton, adjusted for any underplantings in 1977 and reconstituted as provided in section 379 of the Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1938, as amended, shall again become effective as preliminary allotments for the 1982 crop. (7 U.S.C. 1342 note.)]

ACREAGE ALLOTMENTS

[SEC. 344 is inapplicable through the 1981 crop.]

SEC. 344.79 (a) Whenever a national marketing quota is proclaimed under section 342, the Secretary shall determine and proclaim a national acreage allotment for the crop of cotton to be produced in the next calendar year. The national acreage allotment for cotton shall be

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which directly affect interestate 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. (7 U.S.C. 1351(a).)

(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. (7 U.S.C. 1351 (b).)

(c) Whenever an abnormally excessive supply of rice exists, the marketing of such commodity by the producers thereof directly and substantially affects interestate 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(e).)

NATIONAL ACREAGE ALLOTMENT AND ALLOCATION

SEC. 352.96% (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.

(b) The national acreage allotment for each such crop of rice shall be apportioned by the Secretary to farms, and in producer

98 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 yar 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."

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 estab lishing 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 allotments.

(c) (1) If for any crop the total acreage planted to rice on a farm is less than the rice alloment 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 consid ered 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.)

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