Claire Reid recently won the title of Agripreneur of the Year at the global competition, Future Agro Challenge.
The South African entrepreneur is the inventor of a biodegradable seed tape which makes it easy to grow domestic vegetables and herb gardens.
Her company, Reel Gardening, uses this innovation to produce its garden-in-a-box products, which targets consumers who want to quickly, affordably and simply produce their own food. Today, the product is stocked by the South African grocer, Food Lover’s Market.
Reid’s invention was born from her school science project in 2002 – when she was just 16 years old. That was when she discovered firsthand just how complicated and time-consuming it could be to grow an urban garden.
She went on to study architecture at university, and in 2008, after graduation, started designing sustainable housing for the mining industry. It was then that she revisited the idea of simplified vegetable gardens and pitched her garden-in-a-box idea to Anglo American. The miner decided to provide her with a short-term loan to pursue her idea and, in 2010, Reid start Reel Gardening.
Read the rest of this article at: How We Made It In Africa
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