‘‘(1) BASE AND YIELD PROTECTION.—Notwith-
standing any other provision of law, the Secretary
shall not reduce crop acreage bases or farm program
payment yields as a result of the planting of a re-
source-conserving crop.
‘‘(2) PAYMENT
ACRES.—Notwithstanding any
other provision of law, the Secretary shall not reduce
any farm program loans, payments, or benefits of a
program participant as a result of the planting of a
resource-conserving crop.
‘‘(3) PAYMENT
RATE.—Notwithstanding any
other provision of law, the Secretary shall provide
deficiency payments on resource-conserving crop
acreage eligible for payments at a rate not less than
the projected deficiency payment rate, as determined
and announced each year by the Secretary prior to
the period during which producers may agree to par-
ticipate in the program.
‘‘(4) PAYMENT
ACRE
PROTECTION.—Notwith-
standing any other provision of law, the Secretary
shall not reduce the payment acres or the estab-
lished price for a program participant who has en-
tered into an agreement with the Secretary for a
fixed period of time.
‘‘(5) RESOURCE-CONSERVING CROPS ON NOR-
MAL FLEX ACREAGE.—Acreage devoted to resource-
conserving crops under this program may, at the
discretion of the producer, be designated as normal
flex acreage.
‘‘(6) ADJUSTMENTS IN PRODUCTION ADJUST-
MENT REQUIREMENTS.—Notwithstanding any other
provision of law, the Secretary shall make fair and
equitable adjustments in acreage limitation require-
ments applicable to a producer participating in the
program giving due consideration to crop rotation,
special conservation practices, rotational grazing,
biomass production, and other appropriate factors
resulting from the implementation of a plan. If the
Secretary determines that the reduction in program
crop production on a participating farm referred to
in the preceding sentence will equal or exceed any
reduction in crop production which, in the absence
of participation in the program, would occur as a re-
sult of acreage limitation requirements, the Sec-
retary shall waive such acreage limitation require-
ments for the farm. If the resource conserving crop
includes a farm program feed grain crop planted on
the base acres of another farm program feed grain
crop, the Secretary shall take into account the estab-
lished or county average yield of the two feed grains
for the purposes of making the adjustment or waiv-
er.
‘‘(7) TOTAL
BASE
ACREAGE
FLEXIBILITY.—
Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the Sec-
retary shall allow participants in this program to
plant farm program crops and oilseeds in any pro-
portion on a producer’s total acreage of farm pro-
gram crop base and historic oilseeds acreage without
affecting farm program payments.
‘‘(8) CROP INSURANCE.—Notwithstanding any
other provision of law, acreage devoted to resource-
conserving crops under this program shall be eligible
for crop insurance pursuant to the Federal Crop In-
surance Act (7 U.S.C. 1501 et seq.).
‘‘(9) HAYING AND GRAZING RESTRICTION.—
‘‘(A) IN
GENERAL.—The Secretary shall
not make any farm program payments to a pro-
ducer, who is otherwise eligible to receive such
payments, for acreage enrolled in the program
if the producer, during the consecutive five
month period in each State in which haying and
grazing of conserving use acres may be prohib-
ited under the provisions of this Act, grazes
breeding cattle or nursing calves or harvests
and sells hay on payment acres.
‘‘(B) TRANSITION
OPTION.—The restric-
tion in subparagraph (A) shall not apply in the
case of a producer who agrees to retire all base
acreage enrolled in the program at the end of
the agreement period.
‘‘(C) EMERGENCY
HAYING
AND
GRAZ-
ING.—The Secretary shall release acreage de-
voted to resource-conserving crops for emer-
gency haying and grazing as the result of a nat-
ural disaster when the Secretary permits unlim-
ited haying and grazing on—
‘‘(i) reduced acreage under this Act;
‘‘(ii) acreage devoted to a conservation
use under this Act;
‘‘(iii) acreage diverted from produc-
tion under a land diversion program estab-
lished under this Act; or
‘‘(iv) acreage enrolled in the conserva-
tion reserve program under the Food Secu-
rity Act of 1985 (16 U.S.C. 3801 et
seq.).’’.
(b) CONFORMING REPEAL.—Section 1451 of the
Food, Agriculture, Conservation, and Trade Act of 1990
(7 U.S.C. 5822) is repealed.
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