USDA WOULD SCRAP COTTON, RICE, BEAN PRICE FLOORS

  The package of proposed farm policy
  changes that the Reagan administration sent to Congress today
  includes a provision that would eliminate minimum price support
  levels for upland cotton, rice and soybeans.
      The package, obtained by Reuters, also includes a
  provision, outlined in advance by USDA officials, that would
  increase the annual permissible cut in the basic price support
  levels for all major crops to 10 pct from five pct.
      Under current law, the basic support prices for upland
  cotton, rice and soybeans between 1987 and 1990 cannot be cut
  below 50 cents per lb, 6.50 dlrs per hundredweight and 4.50
  dlrs per bushel, respectively.
      USDA's intention to propose scrapping price floors for
  cotton, rice and soybeans had not been disclosed previously.
  

