national acreage allotment and allocation

national acreage allotment and allocation Sec. 101. Effective for the 1976 and 1977 crops of rice, section 352 of the Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1938 is amended to read as follows: “Sec. 352. (a) The Secretary shall establish for each of the 1976 and 1977 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 States and administrative areas, to producers on the basis or 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 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 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 90 STAT. 182considered, to be an acreage planted to rice. For the purpose of this paragraph, the Secretary may permit producers of rice to have acre-age 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 winch 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 tinder 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. 90 STAT. 183 “(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 paid 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 he 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.”.