-After introducing the

-After introducing the payment-in-kind concept at the last minute to a lameduck congress. Agriculture Secretary John R. Block says that he is trying to find ways to pursue the program on his own.

“Payment-Tn-TCind” is the name of the general proposal sponsored by the administration which would return surplus grain to farmers who promise not to plant.

Block had requested authority to pursue the program and, while granted authority quickly in the house, failed to receive it in the Senate. Administration critics have said that the Senate stall was because of unanswered questions regarding the proposal: Senate approval would have given Block the authority to waive the $50,000 ceiling on payment of agriculture benefits to farmers, and to cancel the federal requirement that commodities be sold at no less than 110 percent of the farm support loan rate.

Good grain crop years have added to already swollen government stockpiles and costs of raising grain for farmers have risen to put the nation’s farmers in what many perceive as the worst crisis since the 'thirties.

Block’s proposal addresses both issues and bi-partisan legislators have seen it as a significant change in administration policy and a sign that Block now believes that the farm situation is desperate.

Critics, although not wholly against the concept of payment-in -kind, have wondered how such a gigantic effort could be undertaken. Some questions have been about the impact on the agriculture-related businesses in farm communities; about whether farmers really want to lay idle for a year; and controls to be kept on farmers wishing to sell their payment-in-kind crop. Under Block’s proposal, a farmer could idle 100 percent of his land and receive payment in wheat, corn, sorghum, rice or cotton for his own use, or idle 50 percent of his farm for the same commodities to sell.

,1,:. I