Cape Town - Government will make R1bn available for support to emerging farmers, the SABC reported on Wednesday.
Agriculture Minister Tina Joemat-Pettersson said 2 000 land reform beneficiaries and 1 000 extension officers would be trained. She said broad-based black economic empowerment would also be monitored.
"We have, with the industry stakeholders launched the Agri BEE charter council to monitor and report on BBBEE initiatives.
"Not enough has been done to monitor BBBEE in agriculture and this will be intensified and monitored with scrutiny."
The government wanted to tap into the goodwill that existed among white commercial farmers to help grow the black farming sector, she said.
Speaking at the end of debate in the National Assembly on her department's budget vote, she warned it was wrong to label white commercial farmers as "the enemy".
"We must work together to do more. We will listen to all stakeholders. We will listen to those who have competence and skills. We do not have the luxury of time to reinvest in these.
"There are historically advantaged commercial farmers who have the knowledge and who have the know-how. And there is goodwill among white commercial farmers. There is goodwill; they want to help.
"It is tapping into that goodwill that is important, and not to always blame and label white commercial farmers as the enemy. There are patriotic white South Africans who want to help this country," she told MPs.
Government would work together with farmers who believed their collective future lay in South Africa, but not with those who were "condescending, patronising and racist" in nature.
"We are going to need... [farmers who] will share the risk of failure. If a farm collapses, it is going to be the responsibility of both white and black white farmers to address the failure," she said.
- Sapa