Soy growers ask higher U.S. support, biodiesel aid

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Congress should increase soybean subsidies and provide a biodiesel incentive payment to encourage development of the renewable fuel, the American Soybean Association said on Friday.

The ASA asked for a support price of at least $5.01 a bushel and a target price of at least $6.85 a bushel. Both are higher than the current price. The Bush administration has proposed a support price of no more than $4.92 a bushel.

Congress is scheduled to overhaul U.S. farm policy this year. The administration has suggested support prices that generally would be lower than those now in use while putting more money into the annual payments guaranteed to growers.

"We would prefer to see any additional funds used to level the playing field by setting more equitable marketing loan rates and target prices, and through income-generating opportunities like biodiesel that are good for soybean growers and the nation at large," said ASA president Rick Ostlie, of Northwood, North Dakota.

Under the ASA proposal, support prices would be set at 95 percent of market prices from 2000-04 and no lower than $5.01. The target price would be 130 percent of the average price and no less than $6.85 a bushel.

It also recommended:

--"A biodiesel incentive payment to support continued growth of the young U.S. biodiesel industry in the face of sometimes subsidized foreign imports."

--Expanding the Conservation Security Program into a national program and giving it more money. CSP pays farmers who make land stewardship part of their farming operations.

--More money for the cost-sharing Environmental Quality Incentives Program, which combats runoff from feedlots and fields. EQIP gets about $1 billion a year.

--Allowing higher-quality land in the land-idling Conservation Reserve to "return to production or to produce energy crops," such as soybeans for biodiesel or corn for fuel ethanol.