WASHINGTON (AP) – Large farm operations are reaping too big a share of government subsidies, new Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns said Thursday, defending President Bush’s desire to curb the payments by billions of dollars over the next decade.

“The realization was there that very large sums of money were going to a very few, and that very controversy is what the president is zeroing in on,” Johanns said in an interview with The Associated Press. “There’s a point at which there should be a limit.”

Bush wants to drop the ceiling on payments from $360,000 to $250,000 and close what the administration describes as loopholes that allow some to claim several times that amount. On top of that, he proposed a 5 percent across-the-board cut in all farm payments.

“I just think to the average person out there, they look at that and say, “Geez, that makes sense to me,”‘ Johanns said.

He was confronted with new Commerce Department figures Thursday showing the trade deficit in agriculture zoomed from $805 million in 2003 to $5.8 billion last year. Food exports of $56.3 billion in 2004 were overshadowed by food imports of $62 billion.

“These statistics tell me that we need to do everything we can to redouble our efforts in negotiating trade agreements,” Johanns said.