95 STAT. 1246
PUBLIC LAW 97-98—DEC. 22, 1981 reduction required to be made for any year as the result of a limitation under this subparagraph shall be the acreage planted on the farm to rice for harvest in the crop year immediately preceding the year for which the determination is made or, at the discretion of the Secretary, the average acreage planted to rice for harvest in the two crop years immediately preceding the year for which the determination is made. For the purpose of the preceding sentence, acreage planted to rice for harvest shall include any acreage which the producers were prevented from planting to rice or other nonconserving crop in lieu of rice because of drought, flood, or other natural disaster, or other condition beyond the control of the producers. The Secretary may make adjustments to reflect established crop-rotation practices and to reflect such other factors as the Secretary determines should be considered in determining a fair and equitable base. A number of acres on the farm determined by dividing (i) the product obtained by multiplying the number of acres required to be withdrawn from the production of rice times the number of acres actually planted to rice, by (ii) the number of acres authorized to be planted to rice under the limitation established by the Secretary 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. The number of acres so determined is hereafter in this subsection referred to as 'reduced acreage'. The Secretary may permit, subject to such terms and conditions as the Secretary may prescribe, all or any part of the reduced 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, rye, or other commodity, if the Secretary determines that such production is needed to provide an adequate supply of such commodities, is not likely to increase the cost of the price support f)rogram, and will not affect farm income adversely. If an acreage imitation program is announced under this paragraph for a crop of rice, paragraph (4) of this subsection shall not be applicable to such crop, including any prior announcement which may have been made under such paragraph with respect to such crop. The individual farm program acreage shall be the acreage planted on the farm to rice for harvest within the permitted rice acreage for the farm as established under this paragraph. "(B) The Secretary may make land diversion payments to producers of rice, whether or not an acreeige limitation for rice is in effect, if the Secretary determines that such land diversion payments are necessary to assist in adjusting the total national acreage of rice to desirable goals. Such land diversion payments shall be made to producers 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
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