LIMPOPO-Lutendo Steven Tshisevhe has been a shining example of what self-employment is all about.
After acquiring enough experience in a nursery at Vhembe TVET College Mashamba south campus, Tshisevhe decided to open his own nursery in his backyard many years ago.
The 34-year-old from Lwamondo Khumbe village outside Thohoyandou is the owner of TLRT Nursery, which specialises in crafted and non-crafted fruit trees, flowers, vegetable seedlings and trees.
He said he started the endeavour in 2011, by planting vegetable seedlings in his garden.
“Some of the farmers in the area starting talking to me about the seedlings, and we started to discuss business,” said Tshisevhe.
Once customers started to come in huge numbers, they motivated him to work even harder and this made the business grow, he told CV.
“The journey was not always easy, as I struggled with finances. But the demand was high. I remember one of the clients told me that I was innovative in ‘a business of white people’ and what I was doing wasn’t easy.
“In 2018, I entered the Youth Aspirations Farmer contest, and I came second in the category for backyard farmers. From here, my creativity in the business only grew.”
He told CV that one of the challenges he has had to learn from, is how the rainfall impacted his business.
“During the rain season, I often had damage to the seedlings and customers would complain about delays. But we improved by building a new greenhouse tunnel, and things are now going well.”
Owning a nursery has been fulfilling, Tshisevhe said.
“If you understand what you are doing and you love it, you have to be patient because you work like a doctor of plants all the time.
“My goal is to be a commercial nursery farmer one day, and create lots of jobs. Since I have a backyard nursery, I am unable to buy expensive pesticides.”
He says his clients are from around Lwamondo, Ha- Mutsha, and Tshakhuma.
“My dream is also to have land where I will be able to run my nursery and produce many trees so there will be no shortage of fruit and flowers.
“But for now I love what I do, and I thrive in this type of environment,” he said.
