Announcement of Approval of the Grain Set-Aside and Reserve Programs

The President today made final a 10-percent feed grain set-aside program for 1978 and increased the storage payment for the farmer-owner grain reserve program. He urged farmers to make maximum use of those two farm programs.

Approval of both program actions was recommended to the President by Agriculture Secretary Bob Bergland.

"Farmers have the tools at hand to raise grain prices," the President said. "By participating in the set-aside programs, they help cut the oversupplies that are currently holding down prices. By putting their grain in the reserve program, they will remove excess supplies from the market until farm prices rise. I urge farmers to take full advantage of these opportunities to improve prices."

The President said that storage payments for grains held in the farmerowned reserve program would be increased from 20 cents to 25 cents per bushel per year for the major grains. Farmers now storing grain in the reserve will be offered new contracts to reflect the 25-cent rate.

"We hope that this higher storage payment will encourage greater use of the farmer-controlled reserve program," the President said. "Our goal is to have 30 to 35 million tons of food and feed grain in reserve prior to the beginning of the 1978 crop year.

"If our farmers use this program, it will have a positive impact on prices, which are now too low, and will, at the same time, assure foreign buyers that we will be a reliable supplier of grain."

The President also said that Secretary Bergland has under consideration other actions that could be taken to improve farm prices and income.

Sign-up for the 1978 set-aside programs will begin March 1 and will be conducted through May 1 in the Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Stabilization and Conservation Service (ASCS) county offices.