Commercial farmers willing to help land reform

Commercial agriculture is in favour of orderly land reform and will diligently help to establish new black farmers, according to Free State Agriculture president Dan Kriek.

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"Commercial agriculture has sound plans in place to help new farmers and wants to work with government in this regard," he told the FSA congress in Bloemfontein.

He said the land reform process was hampered by a lack of communication and racial stereotyping.

"We as the commercial agricultural sector know exactly what we are doing, but nobody else does," added Kriek.

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He said FSA members fully understood the need for “social justice “. That was underscored by the fact that the organisation commissioned a provincial land audit a few years ago to support orderly land reform.

Kriek said he was proud to say that the majority of farmers he dealt with supported broad liberal values.

"This is contrary to the general perception that farmers are conservative on the whole. We must break the silence on this,” he said.