Hard working mother feeds the nation

One Vhembe woman is living testimony that nothing beats hard work and determination if one wants to live a happier life.

An entrepreneur, Livhuwani Nemaungani, better known as Luvhuki in business circles, believes that in order to preserve a business enterprise, one needs to work hard and have a strong, motivated team.

“The youth out there need to understand that there’s no quick formula to help you reach your business goals,” she says. “You need to set down your goals and work hard towards achieving those bright goals.”

This highly-spirited woman owns Livhuki General Trading, a company that deals in, among other ventures, poultry farming and crop production farming. The farm is situated at Ramavhoya village.

“At the end of the day, one needs to understand that one doesn’t run a farming business for the purposes of getting any form of glory,” she says. “We do it for our district and our country; we are feeding the nation. It’ll only be fair to state that farming is a country’s economic cornerstone.”

They specialise in producing – among other things – cabbages, tomatoes, spinach, baby marrow, onion, mustard, beetroot, butternut and green pepper. “We purchase seedlings from a nursery, apply compost, plant and fertilise, and maintain the harvest,” she says. “When harvest time comes, we deliver our fresh produce to major supermarkets and fruit-and-vegetable open markets.”

So far, Livhuki's challenge is that she has got a huge demand for products, more than she can supply at this stage. “Securing more capital only translates into the possibility of creating more jobs for unemployed men and women here in Vhembe district.”

She reckons farming is a viable venture. “However, just like any other field, farming has got technicalities of its own and one needs to know all those in order to produce quality products,” she says. “Failure to know and understand the use of certain chemicals to treat plants results in a greater loss. And sometimes there are natural disasters which are part of setbacks in this field.”

She states, however, that nothing beats a positive spirit. “You need to motivate yourself and employees,” she says. “I have always learned that in farming we must always have insurance. In cases where natural disasters strike, we’ll know that we have something to fall back on."

This mother of two, a 14-year-old daughter and an 11-year-old son, delights in combining business and motherhood.

Indeed, hard work has paid off for Livhuki as she has won numerous farmers’ awards and youth-in-business awards for her farming expertise, and the prizes have served as a motivation for her to work even harder.

News - Date: 27 February 2017

Tshifhiwa Mukwevho

Tshifhiwa Given Mukwevho was born in 1984 in Madombidzha village, not far from Louis Trichardt in the Limpopo Province. After submitting articles for roughly a year for Limpopo Mirror's youth supplement, Makoya, he started writing for the main newspaper. He is a prolific writer who published his first book, titled A Traumatic Revenge in 2011. It focusses on life on the street and how to survive amidst poverty. His second book titled The Violent Gestures of Life was published in 2014.

Email: [email protected]