The Secretary shall provide the price support authorized or required herein through the Commodity Credit Corporation and other means available to him.

Except as otherwise provided in this Act, the amounts, terms, and conditions of price support operations and the extent to which such operations are carried out, shall be determined or approved by the Secretary. The following factors shall be taken into consideration in determining, in the case of any commodity for which price support is discretionary, whether a price-support operation shall be undertaken and the level of such support and, in the case of any commodity for which price support is mandatory, the level of support in excess of the minimum level prescribed for such commodity: (1) the supply of the commodity in relation to the demand therefor, (2) the price levels at which other commodities are being supported and, in the case of feed grains, the feed values of such grains in relation to corn, (3) the availability of funds, (4) the perishability of the commodity, (5) the importance of the commodity to agriculture and the national economy, (6) the ability to dispose of stocks acquired through a price-support operation, (7) the need for offsetting temporary losses of export markets, (8) the ability and willingness of producers to keep supplies in line with demand and (9), in the case of upland cotton, changes in the cost of producing such cotton.

Compliance by the producer with acreage allotments, production goals and marketing practices (including marketing quotas when authorized by law), prescribed by the Secretary, may be required as a condition of eligibility for price support. In administering any program for diverted acres the Secretary may make his regulations applicable on an appropriate geographical basis. Such regulations shall be administered (1) in semiarid or other areas where good husbandry requires maintenance of a prudent feed reserve in such manner as to permit, to the extent so required by good husbandry, the production of forage crops for storage and subsequent use either on the farm or in feeding operations of the farm operator, and (2) in areas declared to be disaster areas by the President under the Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act [42 U.S.C. 5121 et seq.], in such manner as will most quickly restore the normal pattern of their agriculture.

The level of price support for any commodity shall be determined upon the basis of its parity price as of the beginning of the marketing year or season in the case of any commodity marketed on a marketing year or season basis and as of January 1 in the case of any other commodity.

On such payment, the Secretary shall—

(1) Whenever any price support or surplus removal operation for any agricultural commodity is carried out through purchases from or loans or payments to processors, the Secretary shall, to the extent practicable, obtain from the processors such assurances as he deems adequate that the producers of the agricultural commodity involved have received or will receive maximum benefits from the price support or surplus removal operation.

On such payment, the Secretary shall—

(A) If the assurances under paragraph (1) are not adequate to cause the producers of sugar beets and sugarcane, because of the bankruptcy or other insolvency of the processor, to receive maximum benefits from the price support program within 30 days after the final settlement date provided for in the contract between such producers and processor, the Secretary, on demand made by such producers and on such assurances as to nonpayment as the Secretary shall require, shall pay such producers such maximum benefits less benefits previously received by such producers.

(B) On such payment, the Secretary shall— (i) be subrogated to all claims of such producers against the processor and other persons responsible for nonpayment; and (ii) have authority to pursue such claims as necessary to recover the benefits not paid to the producers.

(C) The Secretary shall carry out this paragraph through the Commodity Credit Corporation.

(Oct. 31, 1949, ch. 792, title IV, § 401, 63 Stat. 1054; Aug. 28, 1954, ch. 1041, title II, §§ 206, 207, 68 Stat. 901; Pub. L. 88–297, title I, § 103(c), Apr. 11, 1964, 78 Stat. 175; Pub. L. 99–198, title IX, § 903(a), Dec. 23, 1985, 99 Stat. 1444; Pub. L. 100–707, title I, 109(a)(1), Nov. 23, 1988, 102 Stat. 4708.)