DEFICIENCY AND LAND DIVERSION PAYMENTS.

SEC. 1121. DEFICIENCY AND LAND DIVERSION PAYMENTS. (a) In General.— Section 107C of the Agricultural Act of 1949 (7 U.S.C. 1445b–2) is amended to read as follows: “SEC. 107C. DEFICIENCY AND LAND DIVERSION PAYMENTS. “(a) Deficiency Payments.— “(1) In general.— If the Secretary establishes an acreage limitation program for any of the 1991 through 1995 crops of wheat, feed grains, upland cotton, or rice under this Act and determines that deficiency payments will likely be made for the commodity for the crop, the Secretary shall make advance deficiency payments available to producers for each of the crops. “(2) Terms and Conditions.— Advance deficiency payments under paragraph (1) shall be made to the producer under the following terms and conditions: “(A) Form.— Such payments may be made available in the form of— “(i) cash; “(ii) commodities owned by the Commodity Credit Corporation and certificates redeemable in a commodity owned by the Commodity Credit Corporation, except that not more than 50 percent of the payments may be made in commodities or the certificates in the case of any producer; or “(iii) any combination of clauses (i) and (ii). “(B) Commodities and certificates.— If payments are made available to producers as provided for under subparagraph (A)(ii), such producers may elect to receive such payments either in the form of— “(i) such commodities; or “(ii) such certificates. “(C) Maturity.— Such a certificate shall be redeemable for a period not to exceed 3 years from the date the certificate is issued. “(D) Storage.— The Commodity Credit Corporation shall pay the cost of storing a commodity that may be received under such a certificate until such time as the certificate is redeemed. “(E) Timing.— The payments shall be made available as soon as practicable after the producer enters into a contract with the Secretary to participate in such program. “(F) Amounts.— The payments shall be made available in such amounts as the Secretary determines appropriate to104 STAT. 3501 encourage adequate participation in the program, except that the amount may not exceed an amount determined by multiplying— ‘(i) the estimated payment acreage for the crop; by “(ii) the farm program payment yield for the crop; by “(iii) (I) in the case of wheat and feed grains, not less than 40 percent, nor more than 50 percent, of the projected payment rate; and “(II) in the case of rice and upland cotton, not less than 30 percent, nor more than 50 percent, of the projected payment rate, as determined by the Secretary. “(G) Repayment.— If the deficiency payment payable to a producer for a crop, as finally determined by the Secretary under this Act, is less than the amount paid to the producer as an advance deficiency payment for the crop under this subsection, the producer shall repay an amount equal to the difference between the amount advanced and the amount finally determined by the Secretary to be payable to the producer as a deficiency payment for the crop concerned. “(H) Repayment requirement.— If the Secretary determines under this Act that deficiency payments will not be made available to producers on a crop with respect to which advance deficiency payments already have been made under this subsection, the producers who received the advance payments shall repay the payments. “(I) Deadline.— Any repayment required under subparagraph (G) or (H) shall be due at the end of the marketing year for the crop with respect to which the payments were made. “(J) Noncompliance.— If a producer fails to comply with requirements established under the acreage limitation program involved after obtaining an advance deficiency payment under this subsection, the producer shall repay immediately the amount of the advance, plus interest thereon in such amount as the Secretary shall prescribe by regulation. “(3) Regulations.— The Secretary may issue such regulations as the Secretary determines necessary to carry out this section. “(4) Commodity credit corporation.— The Secretary shall carry out the program authorized by this section through the Commodity Credit Corporation. “(5) Additional authority.— The authority provided in this section shall be in addition to, and not in place of, any authority granted to the Secretary or the Commodity Credit Corporation under any other provision of law. “(b) Land Diversion Payments.— If the Secretary makes land diversion payments under this Act to assist in adjusting the total national acreage of any of the 1991 through 1995 crops of wheat, feed grains, upland cotton, or rice to desirable levels, the Secretary may make at least 50 percent of such payments available to a producer as soon as possible after the producer agrees to undertake the diversion of land in return for the payments. “(c) Timing of Deficiency Payments.— In the case of deficiency payments made available to producers for any of the 1991 through 1995 crops of wheat, feed grains, and rice which payments are calculated on the basis of the national weighted average market104 STAT. 3502 price (or, in the case of rice, the national average market price) for the marketing year for the crop, the Secretary shall make deficiency payments as follows: “(1) A portion of the deficiency payment shall be made in advance in accordance with subsection (a)(2). “(2) Seventy-five percent of the final projected deficiency payment for the crop, reduced by the amount of the advance, shall be made available as soon as practicable after the end of the first 5 months of the applicable marketing year. “(3) The remainder of the deficiency payments shall be made available at the end of the marketing year.”. (b) Repayment Requirements.— (1) In general.— Notwithstanding any other provision of law, effective only for producers who are suffering financial hardship, as determined by the Secretary, on a farm who received an advance deficiency payment for the 1988 or 1989 crop of a commodity and are otherwise described in paragraph (2), the Secretary of Agriculture— (A) shall not charge an annual interest rate for any delinquent refund for the advance deficiency payment in excess of prevailing rates for operating loans made by Farm Credit System institutions; (B) shall not withhold, in each of the 3 succeeding crop years, more than 1/3 of the farm program payments otherwise due to the producers, as a result of any delinquency in providing the refund; and (C) shall permit the producers to make the refund in three equal installments during each of the crop years 1990, 1991, and 1992, if the producers enter into an agreement to obtain multiperil crop insurance for each of the crop years, to the extent that the Secretary determines is similar to section 107 of the Disaster Assistance Act of 1989 (7 U.S.C. 1421 et seq.). (2) Application.— This subparagraph shall apply if— (A) the producers received an advance deficiency payment for the 1988 or 1989 crop of a commodity under section 107C(a) of the Agricultural Act of 1949 (7 U.S.C. 1445b—2(a)); (B) the producers are required to provide a refund of at least $1,500 under subparagraph (G) or (H) of section 107C(a)(2) of such Act with respect to the advance deficiency payments; (C) the producers reside in a county, or in a county that is contiguous to a county, where the Secretary of Agriculture has found that farming, ranching, or aquaculture operations have been substantially affected as evidenced by a reduction in normal production for the county of at least 30 percent during two of the three crop years 1988, 1989, and 1990 by a natural disaster or by a major disaster or emergency designated by the President under the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act (42 U.S.C. 5121 et seq.); and (D) the total quantity of the 1988 or 1989 crop of the commodity that the producers were able to harvest is less than the result of multiplying 65 percent of the farm payment yield established by the Secretary for the crop by the sum of the acreage planted for the harvest and the104 STAT. 3503 acreage prevented from being planted (because of the disaster or emergency referred to in subparagraph (C)) for the crop. (c) Conforming Amendment.— Section 1002 of the Food Security Act of 1985 (Public Law 99–198; 99 Stat. 1446) is amended by striking “Effective only for the 1986 through 1990 crops of wheat, feed grains, upland cotton, and rice, section” and inserting “Section”.