ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, April 6, 1996 TAG: 9604080006
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-8 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
SOURCE: ROBERT GREENE ASSOCIATED PRESS
SOUTHWEST VIRGINIA shouldn't be as deeply affected as cotton and feed grain farmers in eastern Virginia.
For the first time in more than 60 years, many farmers this spring will be making their planting decisions without being told by the government what to grow.
Starting next month, they will make what could be their last applications for government farm payments - maybe forever.
In a major break from policies of the past six decades, the payments will no longer be tied to crop prices. Growers will sign seven-year contracts that wean them off government assistance, instead of annual applications for benefits.
The new $47 billion farm law, which President Clinton reluctantly signed Thursday, eliminates the subsidies, price supports and planting directions for corn, other feed grains, cotton, rice and wheat that farmers had received every year.
Instead, farmers will get lump-sum payments that eventually dwindle to nothing. They will have to rely on the agricultural markets and their own instincts, not the government, in deciding what and how much to grow.
The law's impact in Western Virginia should not be significant because few farmers participate in the government programs, said James Pease, an agricultural economist at Virginia Tech. Most of the 3,800 farmers in Virginia who receive government cash payments are growers of cotton and feed grains such as corn, wheat, barley and sorghum, who farm in the eastern part of the state, he said.
Because the law lifts planting controls from farmers, beef producers in Western Virginia could indirectly benefit in the form of lower feed prices and higher beef prices, Pease said. Although the region's dairy farmers don't operate under a federal marketing order, they still may be affected by changes in the federal dairy program, he said.
The price support program for tobacco, a major crop in Southside and Western Virginia, is not a part of the new law. In any case, the tobacco program has been self-supporting at no cost to the taxpayers for several years, Pease noted.
Although the law lifts many government controls on farmers, it ``fails to provide an adequate safety net for family farmers,'' President Clinton said.
But his probable election opponent, Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole, lauded a ``new era in American agriculture.''
Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman pledged the department would work swiftly to carry out the law while looking for new ways, such as revenue insurance, to protect growers from future price swings.
``Congress left us in a very tight time crunch,'' Glickman said. The new farm law, the latest ever, came after a botched attempt by Congress to include the measure in a budget-balancing law and after long squabbles over regionally divisive dairy issues.
The administration opposed the bill because it gives farmers large payments at the beginning, when skyrocketing market prices mean traditional subsidies would have fallen sharply. Afterward, the guaranteed payments dwindle, giving growers little protection if prices collapse.
President Clinton said he would propose legislation next year to restore some cushion for growers if prices should fall again.
Staff writer Greg Edwards contributed to this story.
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