per centum of the national acreage allotment apportioned within each State may be reserved by the State committee for (1) appor tionment 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 allotment for the farm (or in producer adminis trative 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 it 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 ɔr lease all or any part, or the right to all or any part of such allotnent, to any other owner or operator of a farm in the same adminiscrative 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 prolucer 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 and 1977 shall not be taken into account in establishing farm, or producer acreage allotments in any year following such period. (7 U.S.C. 1352.)

APPORTIONMENT OF NATIONAL ACREAGE ALLOTMENT

SEC. 353.96h (a) The national acreage allotment of rice for each calendar year, less a reserve of not to exceed 1 per centum thereof for apportionment by the Secretary as provided in this subsection, shall be apportioned by the Secretary among the several States in which rice is produced in proportion to the average number of acres of rice in each State during the five-year period immediately preceding the calendar year for which such national allotment of rice is determined (plus, in applicable years, the acreage diverted under previous agricultural adjustment and conservation programs) with adjustments for trends in acreage during the applicable period. The Secretary shall provide for the apportionment of the reserve acreage set aside pursuant to this subsection to farms receiving allotments which are inadequate because of an insufficient State or county acreage allotment or because rice was not planted on the farm during all of the preceding five years. ***97 (7 U.S.C. 1353 (a).)

(b) The State acreage allotment shall be apportioned to farms owned or operated by persons who have produced rice in the State in any one of the five calendar years immediately preceding the year for which such apportionment is made on the basis of past production

96h Sec. 353 was made inapplicable to the 1976 and 1977 crops of rice by Sec. 103 of the Rice Production Act of 1975, P.L. 94-214, 90 Stat. 186, Feb. 16, 1976.

97 A proviso which applied only to the 1950 crop of rice has been omitted.

ducer or producers who have had previous rice-producing experience, provided the following conditions are met: (i) The transferee must acquire, except for land, the entire farming operation pertaining to rice, including all production and harvesting equipment, any irrigation equipment not permanently attached to the land; and (ii) the transferee must actually plant at least 90 per centum of his total producer rice acreage allotment, including the allotment determined on the basis of the rice history acreage acquired from the transferor for at least three out of the next four years following the transfer. Failure by the transferee to comply with condition (ii) above shall result in cancellation of the transfer of the rice history acreage. The transferor of rice acreage history under this subsection shall not be eligible for a producer rice acreage allotment for any year subsequent to such transfer, except to the extent that such allotment may be based on rice history acquired in a year (subsequent to the transfer) for which rice acreage allotments are not in effect.

(4) 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: Provided, That if a partnership was formed in a year in which allotments were in effect and is dissolved in less than three consecutive crop years after the partnership became effective, the rice acreage allotment established for the partnership and rice history acreages credited to the partnership for each of the years during its existence shall be divided among the partners in the same proportion that each partner contributed to the allotment established for the partnership at the time such partnership was formed. The rice history acreage credited to each of the partners for the years prior to the time the partnership was formed shall revert to the person to whom it was originally credited. (7 U.S.C. 1353 (f).)

(g) Notwithstanding any other provision of this Act, if the Secreary determines for 1973 that because of a natural disaster a portion f the farm rice acreage allotments in a county cannot be timely lanted or replanted in such year, he may authorize for such year he transfer of all or a part of the rice acreage allotment for any arm in the county so affected to another farm in the county or in an djoining county on which one or more of the producers on the farm rom which the transfer is to be made will be engaged in the producion of rice and will share in the proceeds thereof, in accordance with uch regulations as the Secretary may prescribe. Any farm allotment ransferred under this subsection shall be deemed to be released acrege for the purpose of acreage history credits under subsection (e) f this section and section 377 of this Act: Provided, That, notwithtanding the provisions of subsection (e) of this section, the transfer f any farm allotment under this subsection shall operate to make he farm from which the allotment was transferred eligible for an

allotment as having rice planted thereon during the five-year bas period.a

MARKETING QUOTAS

SEC. 354. (a) Whenever in any calendar year the Secretary deter mines that the total supply of rice for the marketing year beginning in such calendar year will exceed the normal supply for such mark eting year, the Secretary shall not later than December 31 of suc calendar year, proclaim such fact and marketing quotas shall be in effect for the crop of rice produced in the next calendar year. (' U.S.C. 1354(a).)

(b) Within thirty days after the date of the issuance of the proc lamation specified in subsection (a) of this section, the Secretar shall conduct a referendum by secret ballot of farmers engaged i the production of the immediately preceding crop of rice to deter mine whether such farmers are in favor of or opposed to such quotas If more than one-third of the farmers voting in the referendum oppose such quotas the Secretary shall, prior to the 15th day o February, proclaim the result of the referendum and such quota shall become ineffective. (7 U.S.C. 1354 (b).)

AMOUNT OF FARM MARKETING QUOTA

SEC. 355. The farm marketing quota for any crop of rice shall b the actual production of rice on the farm less the normal productio of the acreage planted to rice on the farm in excess of the farr acreage allotment. The normal production from such excess acreag shall be known as the "farm marketing excess": Provided, That th farm marketing excess shall not be larger than the amount by whic the actual production of rice on the farm exceeds the normal produ tion of the farm acreage allotment if the producer establishes suc actual production to the satisfaction of the Secretary. (7 U.S. 1355.)

99a Subsection (g) was added by P.L. 93-27, 87 Stat. 27, April 27, 1973.

90b Secs. 354 and 355 were made inapplicable to the 1976 and 1977 crops of rice Sec. 103 of the Rice Production Act of 1975, P.L. 94-214, 90 Stat. 186, Feb. 16, 1976.