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6100 Federal Register / Vol. 62, No. 28 / Tuesday, February 11, 1997 / Rules and Regulationseffective for the 1997 and succeedingcrop years. These provisions willreplace and supersede the currentprovisions for insuring dry beans foundat 7 CFR part 433 (Dry Bean CropInsurance Regulations). FCIC alsoamends 7 CFR part 433 to limit its effectto the 1996 and prior crop years. FCICwill later publish a regulation to removeand reserve part 433.Following publication of the proposedrule, the public was afforded 30 days tosubmit written comments, data, andopinions. A total of 80 comments werereceived from the crop insuranceindustry and FCIC. The commentsreceived, and FCIC’s responses, are asfollows:Comment: The crop insuranceindustry questioned if considerationhad ever been given to having two beanpolices, one for contract seed beans andone for dry beans. It would be easier forpolicyholders to have crop provisionsthat address only the kind of beans theyare insuring.Response: FCIC will consider thisoption for a future rule. However, thereis not sufficient time to divide thispolicy for the 1997 crop year. Therefore,no change has been made.Comment: The crop insuranceindustry recommended defining‘‘properly handled.’’Response: The requirements forhandling seed beans are contained inthe seed bean processor contract.Therefore, it would be difficult for FCICto define ‘‘properly handled’’ due to thediffering requirements of seed beancompanies. However, FCIC will amendthe definition of ‘‘actual value’’ toclarify that production must be handledin accordance with requirementscontained in the seed bean processorcontract.Comment: The crop insuranceindustry recommended that thedefinition of ‘‘Base price’’ be amendedto exclude any bonus offered when thegermination percentage is above theminimum required by the seed contract.Response: FCIC agrees with thecomment and has amended thedefinition accordingly.Comment: The crop insuranceindustry expressed confusion with thedefinitions of ‘‘beans,’’ ‘‘dry beans,’’ and‘‘contract seed beans.’’ The definition of‘‘contract seed beans,’’ is also coveredby the ‘‘dry beans’’ definition whichmakes the definition of ‘‘beans’’ seemredundant. The commenter questions ifthe definition for ‘‘dry beans’’ needs toinclude the intended use of theproduction.Response: Throughout theseprovisions the term ‘‘beans’’ applies toboth dry beans and contract seed beans.The term ‘‘dry beans’’ includes allclasses of beans included in The UnitedStates Standards for Beans. The term‘‘contract seed beans’’ distinguishes drybeans grown under a contract for thespecific purpose of producing seed fora subsequent crop year. The definitionof ‘‘dry beans’’ was changed to excludecontract seed beans.Comment: The crop insuranceindustry agreed that the definition for‘‘county’’ should be deleted in theseprovisions so that the definition in theBasic Provisions will be effective. Thecommenter emphasized that if theseprovisions are approved for the 1997crop year, these changes and subsequentprocedures need to be issued soonenough for companies to providetraining to their agents, rearrange APHdata bases for units that previouslyincluded land in another county, and toallow policyholders to decide whetherto insure any land in another county inwhich they have an interest.Response: FCIC will provideinstructions for changing the data basesfor units that previously included landin another county. These instructionswill be made available at the time thepolicy is released. FCIC does notanticipate that a large number ofproducers farm in more than one countyand, therefore, does not expect a largenumber of data base revisions to benecessary.Comment: The crop insuranceindustry was concerned with thedefinition of ‘‘Good farming practices,’’which makes reference to ‘‘generallyrecognized by the CooperativeExtension Service.’’ The commentersindicated that there are areas orsituations where good, accepted farmingpractices may not necessarily berecognized by the Extension Service.Response: FCIC has removed the word‘‘generally’’ from this part of thedefinition. However, the CooperativeState Research, Education, andExtension Service recognizes mostfarming practices that are consideredacceptable for producing beans. The useof practices not recognized as acceptableby the Cooperative State Research,Education, and Extension Serviceprovides no standards by which tomeasure performance.Comment: The crop insuranceindustry recommended adding thewords ‘‘and quality’’ after the word‘‘quantity’’ in the definition of ‘‘irrigatedpractice.’Response: Water quality is animportant issue. However, since nostandards or procedures have beendeveloped to measure water quality forinsurance purposes, quality cannot beincluded in the definition. Therefore, nochange has been made.Comment: A representative of FCICrecommended changing the secondsentence in the definition of ‘‘localmarket price’’ to ‘‘Moisture and factors* * *’’ and delete ‘‘such as moisturecontent.’’Response: FCIC agrees with thecomment and has amended thedefinition accordingly.Comment: The crop insuranceindustry recommended changing thedefinition of ‘‘net price’’ to read, ‘‘Thedollar value of dry bean productionreceived or that could have beenreceived * * *’’Response: FCIC agrees with commentand has amended the definitionaccordingly.Comment: One comment receivedfrom the insurance industryrecommended changing the definitionof ‘‘pick’’ to consider defects based onthe original grade of the beans.Response: Dockage does not includedefects to the beans and, therefore,should not be included in anycalculation of the pick, which appliesonly to defects of the beans. Therefore,no change has been made.Comment: The crop insuranceindustry recommended adding a finalsentence to the definition of ‘‘preventedplanting,’’ which would require theinsured to have past history of the beantype which the insured is declaring asbeing prevented from being planted.Response: FCIC cannot penalize newproducers of a bean type, who can provethat they had the inputs available toplant that particular bean type, bydenying them prevented plantingcoverage. Therefore, no change has beenmade.Comment: A representative of FCICrecommended replacing the reference to‘‘Special Provisions’’ in the definition of‘‘Production guarantee (per acre)’’ with‘‘Actuarial Table,’’ since the adjustmentfactors are in the Actuarial Table andnot the Special Provisions.Response: FCIC agrees with thecomment and has amended thedefinition accordingly.Comment: The crop insuranceindustry questioned if the term‘‘production guarantee’’ applies only todry beans and if the term ‘‘amount ofinsurance’’ is used only for contractseed beans. If so, it would be helpful toidentify dry beans in the definition of‘‘production guarantee’’ and include adefinition for ‘‘amount of insurance’’ forcontract seed beans.Response: The term ‘‘productionguarantee’’ applies to both dry beansand contract seed beans. The amount ofinsurance for contract seed beans is