GLICKMAN PUSHES HARD FOR 0/92 FARM PLAN

  Implementation of a one-year 0/92
  pilot program for wheat and feedgrains was strongly promoted
  today by the chairman of a key house agriculture subcommittee
  as a way to cut farm costs and simultaneously give farmers
  another option when making their planting decisions.
      "We have a budget driven farm policy. It may be a shame,
  but we are locked into this," said Dan Glickman, (D-Kans.),
  chairman of the subcommittee on wheat, soybeans and feed
  grains. "We need to look at ways to cut costs and not hurt the
  farmer. A 0/92 plan, if properly done, could do both."
      Glickman announced this week plans to introduce a 0/92 bill
  for 1987 and 1988 wheat and feedgrains. An aide to Glickman
  said that it will probably be introduced next week.
      Glickman said a 0/92 program, which allows a farmer to
  forego planting and still receive 92 pct of his deficiency
  payment, would not be a major revision of the 1985 farm bill --
  only an extension of the 50/92 option already provided under
  the current bill.
      It is premature to make any major changes in the farm bill,
  he said, but if agriculture has to make further cuts to meet
  budget goals, a voluntary 0/92 plan would be better than
  sharply cutting target prices, as USDA has proposed.
      A 0/92 plan, however, would not be decoupling, but simply a
  different type of acreage diversion program, Glickman said.
      Decoupling -- delinking planting decisions from government
  payments -- is too much of a policy change to approve at this
  point, he said.
      "I don't think there is any interest in pursuing a
  decoupling bill this year. Period. Unequivocal," Glickman said
  at the hearing.
      Sen. Rudy Boschwitz (R-Minn.), cosponsor of the
  Boren/Boschwitz decoupling plan, said he supports a short term
  0/92 program as a move to a more permament decoupling plan.
      Boschwitz plans to introduce a 0/92 plan in the senate. His
  plan would guarantee a certain deficiency payment to
  participating farmers, require that idled acreage be put to
  conservation use only, prohibit haying and grazing on extra
  idled acreage, limit participation to a certain number of acres
  in a county and provide tenant protection provisions.
      "I know we cannot obtain complete decoupling in 1987, but
  we can at least move in that direction," Boschwitz said.
      Robbin Johnson, vice president of Cargill, Inc., testified
  in favor of decoupling. Decoupling would end the current bias
  in U.S. farm policy towards overproduction and reduce farmers'
  dependency on the government, he said.
      A 0/92 plan does not go far enough in decoupling, Johnson
  said, and would still encourage farmers to plant.
      Officials from the National Corn Growers Association and
  the National Cattlemen's Association said their groups oppose
  any 0/92 or decoupling plan due to concerns about reopening the
  farm bill and creating more confusion among farmers.
      But when asked if his association were forced to choose
  between a ten pct cut in target prices or a 0/92 program, Larry
  Johnson of the Corn Growers said they would agree to 0/92
  rather than take sharp cuts in target levels.
  

