Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 91.djvu/966

 91 STAT. 932

Cropland setaside.

Announcement.

Limitation.

Land-diversion payments.

Contracts, bids.

Payments.

PUBLIC LAW 95-113—SEPT. 29, 1977 farm program payment yields shall balance to the national, State, or county program payment yields. "(f)(1) The Secretary shall provide for a set-aside of cropland if the Secretary determines that the total supply of feed grains will, in the absence of such a set-aside, likely be excessive taking into account the need for an adequate carryover to maintain reasonable and stable supplies and prices and to meet a national emergency. Any such setaside shall be announced by the Secretary not later than November 15 of each calendar year for the crop harvested in the next calendar year. If a set-aside of cropland is in effect under this subsection, then as a condition of eligibility for loans, purchases, and payments authorized by this section on corn, grain sorghums, and, if designated by the Secretary, barley and oats, respectively, the producers on a farm must set aside and devote to conservation uses an acreage of cropland equal to a specified percentage, as determined by the Secretary, of the feed grain acreage planted for harvest for the crop year for which the set-aside is in effect. The Secretary may limit the acreage planted to feed grains. Such limitation shall be applied on a uniform basis to all feed grainproducing farms. The set-aside acreage shall be devoted to conservation uses, in accordance with regulations issued by the Secretary, which will assure protection of such acreage from weeds and wind and water erosion; however, the Secretary may permit, subject to such terms and conditions as the Secretary may prescribe, all or any part of the setaside acreage to be devoted to sweet sorghum, hay, and grazing or the production of guar, sesame, safflower, sunflower, castor beans, mustard seed, crambe, plantago ovato, flaxseed, triticale, oats, rye, or other commodity, if the Secretary determines that such production is needed to provide an adequate supply, is not likely to increase the cost of the price support program, and will not adversely affect farm income. " (2) The Secretary may make land diversion payments to producers of feed grains, whether or not a set-aside for feed grains is in effect, if the Secretary determines that such land diversion payments are necessary to assist in adjusting the total national acreage of feed grains to desirable goals. Such land diversion payments shall be made to producers on a farm who, to the extent prescribed by the Secretary, devote to approved conservation uses an acreage of cropland on the farm in accordance with land diversion contracts entered into by the Secretary with such producers. The amounts payable to producers under land diversion contracts may be determined through the submission of bids for such contracts by producers in such manner as the Secretary may prescribe or through such other means as the Secretary determines appropriate. In determining the acceptability of contract offers, the Secretary shall take into consideration the extent of the diversion to be undertaken by the producers and the productivity of the acreage diverted. The Secretary shall limit the total acreage to be diverted under agreements in any county or local community so as not to affect adversely the economy of the county or local community. "(3) The set-aside acreage and the additional diverted acreage may be devoted to wildlife food plots or wildlife habitat in conformity with standards established by the Secretary in consultation with wildlife agencies. The Secretary may pay an appropriate share of the cost of practices designed to carry out the purposes of the foregoing sentence. The Secretary may provide for an additional payment on such acreage in an amount determined by the Secretary to be appropriate in relation to the benefit to the general public if the producer agrees to permit, without other compensation, access to all or such portion of the farm, as the Secretary may prescribe, by the general public, for hunt-

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