Patrick Ranval Goes from Seeds to Software

From Seeds to Software

PATRICK RANVAL’S SEEDSTORY SOFTWARE REVOLUTIONIZES RECORD KEEPING FOR ORGANIC FARMING

by Stephanie Watson

IT’S A HOT, SUNNY DAY AT MAGNEY Legacy Ridge Farm. Patrick Ranval is walking the rows, head shaded by a wide-brimmed straw hat, checking the tender shoots of organic green beans just starting to peak above ground. “I’ve always felt very much myself in gardens,” he explains without looking up. “I spent every summer as a child on my grandfather’s farm in Princeton, Kentucky. My parents were both doctors, so of course there was pressure to follow suit, but I knew I wanted to be a farmer from an early age.” Patrick pauses our conversation, stopping mid row, and types into a spreadsheet on his phone. What may appear to be a distracted interlude, is, in fact, very much a part of his work on the farm. While the word farming still conjures a simple image for most of us—the farmer, the tractor, and the land—like most industries in the 21st century, agriculture has been transformed by technology. Once novel and now mainstream, technology like GPS, robotics, advanced data analytics, drone and satellite imaging, and digital tools to support the connectivity of infrastructure, all play a role in today’s agronomic landscape. But, as in Patrick’s case, even the small to medium-scale organic vegetable farmer needs to be high tech these days. “Just like the large-scale industrial farming, small-medium scale farms use technology every day,” Patrick explains. “Similar to electronic record keeping in the medical industry, we have complex systems of electronic documentation for each stage of the growth process so that the USDA can confidently certify farms as organic. Increased accountability and transparency that support food safety are important to both producers and consumers, and agricultural record keeping is just becoming a normal part of the industry landscape.” How to best go about that record keeping is Patrick’s current project. Previously, this process included page after page

of electronic spreadsheets documenting the integrity of the farming process, from seed derivation to fertilization to harvesting the product. For farms producing one or two crops a year—carrots and peas, for example—maintaining records to continually recertify as organic is intense. But for a market garden like Magney Legacy Ridge that grows 30-40 different vegetable crops each year, demonstrating that same level of compliance for each separate crop was becoming a challenge. During the Organic Association of Kentucky’s annual conference last year, Patrick heard the same story, almost across the board: they had similar systems of spreadsheets, none of which interacted with one another, and all of which were difficult to utilize on a phone or tablet while in the field. “It was like we all had the same problems and were trying to use the same cumbersome solutions,” Patrick states. “It was clear that there had to be a way to work smarter, not harder so that we can keep these important high-level standards while also spending more time doing what we love: the actual farming.” Last November, Patrick presented this problem along with his idea for a technology-driven solution at The West Kentucky Innovation Challenge, a regional competition that supports rural innovators in developing software solutions to their industry’s problems. Sponsored locally by Sprocket and in conjunction with Codefi of Cape Girardeau, the program provides access to software experts and the methods they use to rapidly develop software products, helping to building technology-driven solutions to a variety of industries

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“There are... a lot of things that would surprise people about how their food is grown. Some would be positive and better than they think. Some things they would be horrified by. By going all the way back to the seed, people have the chance to be fully informed consumers.”

PATRICK RANVALSEEDSTORY

around the region. Winners receive up to $50,000 in technical service grants to develop software products and customer development plans as well as access the vast network and training opportunities the nonprofits offer. Patrick’s project, called SeedStory, was one of two winners of the competition. “Codefi is specifically working with non-technical founders,” Patrick explains. “These are people with an idea within a niche industry who understand that a problem that could be solved with software, but they don’t know how to build it themselves. My role has been very much guiding the design process while Codefi has been working on both the back end and the front end to build the technical side of the software.” SeedStory’s purpose is to empower farmers to meet certification standards while solving the problem of all those spreadsheets with a user-friendly documentation interface built specifically for mobile applications. Taking inspiration from popular mobile games and apps (DuoLingo’s interface was one important muse) to allow the farmer to easily track a plant from the time it was a seed, to the day it was planted, to how and when it is cared for along the way, all the way to any treatment it received when it was harvested. The records are, of course, useful to the farmer to keep track of planting and practices, but they also help farms to answer questions the USDA may have for certifications, organic or otherwise. At the same time, it can provide transparency for the customer. Patrick envisions future iterations that may include a QR code on produce labels that could share the entire growth process and soil inputs with consumers so they, too, can be more informed about the plant’s story, seed to sale. “Nobody gets into farming to build spreadsheets,” Patrick adds, “but if we can find a better way to organize that data entry to make it easier for farmers, or maybe even make it fun, that creates value for all the other invested entities.” This move is also on point with the direction of the food industry as a whole. “People want to know more about how their food is produced so they can make good choices about what to eat.” Patrick notes. “There are, truthfully, a lot of things that would surprise people about how their food is grown. Some would be positive and better than they think. Some things they would be horrified by. By going all the way back to the seed, people have the chance to be fully informed consumers.” Currently, SeedStory has validated a demo with a small focus group of farmers and is currently building a public beta to be launched in late fall. Codefi and Sprocket will be involved in this process until the software is complete and ready to exist on its own. “And that’s really what an incubator does,” Patrick explains. “The team at Sprocket and Codefi are focused on building digital ecosystems in rural areas and helping to support rural innovators in all sectors. They help with grants and provide the assistance by shouldering the burden of the cost of developing a software with their tech team until the business is ready to stand on its own.” Patrick is excited for the changes his software will bring to his industry, but he’s also just enjoying learning some new skills and connecting with the people driving economic change in our area. “I can’t say enough good things about Codefi and Sprocket,” he states. “The coworking space is tremendous and the people are wholly dedicated to building the tech industry in this region. I’m perpetually amazed at the quality of the relationship between the two organizations and the impact they are making locally.”