Soybean Growers Like Senate Bil

February 14, 2002

Soybean farmers "congratulated" the Senate for the chamber's final version of a farm bill. Bart Ruth, president of the American Soybean Association (ASA), said, "The Senate bill's commodity provisions treat soybeans fairly and equitably with other program crops, and ASA looks forward to working with House and Senate Conferees to ensure the final bill is equally balanced, and is completed in time to be effective for 2002 crops."

Major features for soybeans in the five-year measure include:

--A $5.75/bu. income support level, including a $5.20/bu loan rate and a $0.55/bu. fixed payment for 2002 and 2003 crops. The fixed payment is reduced to $0.275 in 2004, and to $0.138 in 2006, as the $5.75 level continues to provide counter-cyclical income support during years of low prices.

--Flexibility for farmers to either include soybeans in their current base acreage, or to update their bases to average crop plantings in 1996-2000. Updated payment yields based on the average in 1998-2001, dropping the lowest year and any years in which the crop was not produced.

--An increase in mandatory funding for the Foreign Market Development (FMD) Cooperator program to $42.5 million from the current level of $33 million.

--Annual funding of $16 million for a new Biotechnology and Agricultural Trade (BAT) program to conduct outreach on the benefits of biotech with developing countries, a proposal initiated by ASA.

The legislation now moves to a House-Senate Conference, where differences will be reconciled with a House bill that provides significantly less support for soybeans. While action could take several weeks, Congress would like to finish the conference before the Easter recess begins on March 22, in time for the bill to take effect with 2002 crops.