U.S. SETS CORN DEFICIENCY PAYMENT HALF PIK CERTS

  The upcoming five-month deficiency
  payments to corn and sorghum farmers will be made half in cash
  and half in generic commodity certificates, a senior
  Agriculture Department official told Reuters.
      Around 300 mln dlrs of the in-kind certificates, or
  "certs," will be mailed out to farmers around March 15 or 16,
  Tom von Garlem, Assistant Deputy Administrator for USDA's state
  and county operations, said.
      The decision to make the payments in a 50/50 cash/certs
  ratio was made Monday, but payments to producers will be
  delayed until mid-month due to a problem with USDA's computer
  program, von Garlem said.
  get 11.5 cts per bushel in this next payment -- 5.75 cts in
  certs and around 5.5 cts cash (5.75 cts minus Gramm-Rudman).
      Farmers who did not receive advance deficiency payments at
  signup will receive 63 cts per bushel. Slightly more than half
  of this payment will be in cash, von Garlem said, but he said
  this will not markedly upset the 50/50 ratio, since most
  farmers got advance payments.
      "The final certificate payments will be very close to 300
  mln dlrs," he said.
      When asked if the Office of Management and Budget had
  resisted the cash/certs ratio, the USDA official said that "we
  proposed 50/50 and OMB accepted it."
  

