Thursday, December 18, 1997

Federal rule changes would impact area cotton growers

By J.T. SMITH / Abilene Reporter-News

The weather in West Texas can get mighty rough in the spring months as growers attempt to get a healthy stand of cotton in their fields.

But it will be in a farmer's interest to make an extra effort in 1998 to get the cotton crop up and growing.

The Risk Management Agency has moved forward on "preventing planting" rule changes.

And it's not good news for cotton.

RMA has set a lower level of coverage for cotton than for other crops.

The rule adds drought as insurable prevented planting peril but eliminates insurability of a substitute crop and increases prevented planting coverage for crops.

But cotton's coverage rate was set at 45 percent compared with 60 percent for other ag commodities.

Over objections from both American Farm Bureau and the National Cotton Council (NCC), the RMA also changes the criteria for preventing planting to a so-called "black dirt policy."

That means that producers are only eligible for a payment because of prevented planting if no other crop is planted during that crop year on the land.

The NCC had argued that producers should be able to plant an ininsured "ghost crop" later in the growing season -- if conditions permit -- to help recover lost income.

This new rule was a clear disappointment to the cotton industry.

There's still a dab of hope in that USDA cut some slack by making the cotton provisions at interim rule instead of a final rule.

This will allow NCC to submit some more data to support its request for equal coverage during 1998 with the possibility of favorable action with the 1999 crop year.

The RMA changes were just published in the Dec. 10 Federal Register.