EP 172: How A Soil Scientist Builds Practical Agri Tech For Real Farms

We speak with soil scientist and entrepreneur Palesa Mutaung about building agri-tech that works because it starts with real farms, real buyers and the full agricultural value chain. 

We trace her journey from geology to hands-on deliveries, then into Bread Africa’s research-driven tools that help farmers make better decisions and stay audit-ready.  In this episode we discuss: 

• moving from geology into environmental and agricultural soil science 
• learning the agricultural value chain through aggregation, quality assurance and deliveries 
• choosing research and development as the core of Bread Africa 
• building practical tools that reduce back-and-forth in consulting and improve farm record keeping 
• serving emerging farmers while designing tools that work for any farm size 
• Percy Price as a free WhatsApp chatbot for market prices and market intelligence 
• why customer focus beats tech focus when designing agri-tech products 
• startup realities in South Africa, including bootstrapping and uneven access to grants 
• using perspective to keep going through pivots and pressure 

Email Palesa: palesa@breadafrica.co.za 

Transcript

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Tech Buzzwords And Real Value

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Tech is also very buzzy, it's also a buzzword, and when I say that not to take away from it, uh while it is buzzy, it is such a great enabler, it is such a great equalizer, and it is such a great accelerator. But I think especially in agriculture, something I've noticed and then I think agriculture did very well is a lot of people wanna build the tech before they've built the value chain or before they've built the network or the client base or they've actually participated in solving the problem manually. So I find that for instance, someone says, Oh, I I know how to code, I know how to develop, I'm gonna create an e-marketplace where buyers and sellers can meet. Which buyer, like, why would they go onto your platform? Do you understand how most buyers operate? You know, okay. Before I started bread, I was part of another startup called Agricool. Okay, and in fact, AgriCool wasn't the first startup. We were supplying retailers like ShopRite, Boxer with mostly spinach and cabbage, and sometimes in summer, peppers.

SPEAKER_00 1:13

So let's get to that beginning. How did you actually end up into the space of agriculture and farming? It's not so typical.

Meet Palesa And Bread Africa

SPEAKER_00 1:51

Agriculture in Africa is evolving as farmers face growing pressures from climate change to limited market access. At the same time, though, there's increasing focus on building systems that not only improve productivity, but also strengthen resilience and livelihoods. But what does this look like exactly? And how are young entrepreneurs shaping new pathways in agriculture? Today I'm joined by Pales Mittong, a soil scientist and an entrepreneur working to support farmers and build more sustainable agriculture systems. Let's get into it. Hi, Palessa. Welcome to the show. Hi, Anne.

SPEAKER_01 2:35

Thank you for having me.

SPEAKER_00 2:37

It's so exciting because, like, we were just chatting, and this is long overdue. We met, was it this year or last year? I can't even keep it. It was this year. Hey.

SPEAKER_01 2:47

Yeah, it was this year.

SPEAKER_00 2:48

I can't believe it. It feels like so long ago. And I'm glad that we're able to meet and really do this wonderful interview. So I know all about you, and I know why you're so exciting. So for our listeners, could you briefly introduce yourself and tell us all briefly about Palesa before we get straight into it?

SPEAKER_01 3:08

Sure. Okay, uh, my name is Alessa Mutaou, and I am a soil scientist and a tech entrepreneur. So I am the founder of Bread Africa. Bread is an agricultural RD company. That means we do research, we do agricultural consulting, and we create or develop practical and digital tools for farmers to use. So we're all about, or I am all about, agriculture, food, and you know, farming.

SPEAKER_00 3:42

Awesome. So let's get to

From Geology To Soil Science

SPEAKER_00 3:44

that beginning. How did you actually end up into the space of agriculture and farming? It's not so typical anymore.

SPEAKER_01 3:51

Yeah, yeah. I would say it was not by mistake, but firstly, I always loved science. So when I got to university, I studied geology. I uh it wasn't so much that I'm obsessed with volcanoes or anything like that. It just seemed like it was a subject that really like tackled geography and the natural sciences. And one of my modules there was soil science, and I really enjoyed it. And when I'd look at what the lecturers are doing, uh because they would say what their specialties are, they were doing cool stuff like mind rehabilitation, environmental resources conservation, and obviously coming from the geology side, I resonated with the mind rehabilitation. But at the same time, the more I learned about geology, it seemed that it's an industry that's very extract. And that's just my like ignorant view. I haven't worked as a geologist, but it's mostly abstraction, and I wanted to use science for conservation. So I was like, let me take a slight detour, and then I did my honors in environmental soil science, and then I did my master's in agricultural soil science.

SPEAKER_00 5:08

Oh wow, that's such a wonderful tour. Um, and how you got there. So let's speak about more of the hands-on side because when you speak about what you do um at Bread Africa, it's all encompassing, but still starting at the very beginning. What was one of your first like real hands-on um agricultural sort of experience, apart from just the research side of it in your academic journey?

SPEAKER_01 5:33

Okay,

Learning Farming Through Deliveries

SPEAKER_01 5:34

before I started Bread, I was part of another startup called AgriCool. Okay, and in fact, AgriCool wasn't the first startup, but I'll I'll touch on it because that was the first really practical. So we were doing market access and we were supplying retailers and boxes with mostly spinach and cabbage, and farm papers, and so just to give an example of it was obviously highly practical because we are aggregating from the farmers and transporting to the retailer. That means that we have to do uh quality assurance, we have to show the farmer the the quality assurance, like how must the tomato look, sizing, how must it be packed, how must it be packaged. So you'd have to be on the farm for that. But I'd say a really, really practical experience was at some point the company grew so much, and we had like few trucks out a day and a small van, and there was days where all the drivers were busy and I would have to take the van and go drive to a farm and fill it up with broccolies and cauliflowers and drive to a local store and offload. Um, but I noticed that if I was doing deliveries, uh, which was not very often, uh, everyone would help me. Like if I'm in the CBD of town and now I have to offload all this produce. The taxi drivers, the hobos, everyone would stop, direct me, you know, help me. Uh it would be me and another girl from the office. So, yeah, it got really, really hands-on. It in fact, agriculture is hands-on.

SPEAKER_00 7:21

No, you can't do satellite farming, that's for sure. But this is really exciting that you speak of this agricool experience and you starting another startup. Also, that's just really brilliant. That sounds like really fantastic work because I know you perhaps get this a lot. Like you're so young, that's very impressive, you know. But so, how did that experience in that first startup did that help you then deep, you know, springboard into starting Bread Africa?

Why Bread Focuses On Research

SPEAKER_01 7:55

Yes, 100%. So, I agriculture was my third startup, but it's the one where I learned the most. So, I said was it like a masterclass because raising funding, aggregation, uh farmer financing farmers, there's nothing, there's no part of the value chain that I didn't really get to learn about. But how it drove me to build bread. Um, so bread is more, even though everyone still expects me to or asks me to help with market access. Honestly, that's the fundamental thing most people want. I wanted to focus more on some of my interest and skills, which include research and science. Um, so my first project for bread was a research study that the Agricultural Research Council subcontracted me for so we could see if smallholder farmers use digital tools to farm. And I know they approached me or companies like mine because they want people with practical experience and who have access to farmers because science is often in like perfect condition. So I've been in academia, I love academia, I'd love to also continue in there, but you know, when you design an experiment or you do a study, you are encouraged to control the conditions so that you can ensure that whatever you observe is in fact a result of what you apply to the system, right? But in real life, there's no closed ecosystem. Yeah, so it it's it's it's quite good for big research institutions to uh partner with small startups that deal with farmers every day. So uh spread, I started it because I wanted to do a lot more of the research, and then I really wanted to do the product development my way, obviously aligning it with science and teaching because teaching is also something that I'm passionate about in my long career. I've also been a teacher, I've taught at a high school, I've tutored what haven't you done at the point? Yeah, yeah. I've sometimes I do the most. Once we were pitching to uh VC and we were explaining what we do, and he's like, Oh, too many moving parts, and we were so offended, but he he was right, right? And it became a joke in the office, ah, too many moving parts. So I would say in agriculture, you can never just offer one solution. So if farmers say, please help us access finance, so let's say we want to draft business plans for farmers, you end up helping them with other stuff because you need the other stuff to get the information to put up together a proper business plan. Um, so yeah, me chasing the RD side, so the D side, the development side is also uh is also like building tools. So as a consultant and as a researcher, I realized when I when farmers ask me to help them, there's so much information that I need to ask them for one by one. A lot of them, a lot of it they don't have it or it's disaggregated. So I started building tools that can help me be a better consultant, so gather information about the farm, and also that will help the farm, the farmer themselves track what's happening on the farm, put information together. So, yeah, bread is more about the science and education uh aspect of agriculture.

SPEAKER_00 11:28

Really exciting. I like I like that element because sometimes I think perhaps when you get into sometimes when you become an entrepreneur or you pivot, which I'm gonna come back to, you sometimes people think that you fully pivot and then you leave everything that you've learned. But I love how here you are putting together all of these pieces and nothing was really in vain, but it's sort of come together into this wonderful big picture of you helping people, particularly farmers, solve some of their very real problems.

Emerging Farmers And Who She Serves

SPEAKER_00 12:00

So, do you work specifically with smallholder or you work with also commercial farmers only, or you don't really choose?

SPEAKER_01 12:07

I don't choose. I would say if I had to choose if I had to look at my current client base, it's what they call the emerging farmer segment.

SPEAKER_00 12:17

Alright, trying to do it.

SPEAKER_01 12:18

So profession young professionals or professionals who are getting into farming, or maybe they're not getting into farming, they've been doing it for a while, but they're not typically your smallholder farmer in the sense that they have a lot of land, they have a bit of capital, so they they're that middle middle type of segment between smallholder and commercial. I'd say most of my clients are like that. I don't discriminate. The tools I've built are for every type of farmer.

Percy Price And Market Intelligence

SPEAKER_01 12:50

For instance, uh, Percy Price is our WhatsApp chatbot, it's free. That actually was built after we did the research study with ARC, and what we noticed was smallholder farmers particularly have trouble have trouble understanding pricing at the market and keeping up with it. So we started sending them uh prices for 10 commodities maybe a few times a week. Um but what was special about it was the price was already given as not price per kg but price per unit. So if we knew that butternut is mostly traded in 7 kg units, that tomato is mostly traded in 1 kg or 3 kg. Why I mentioned that is because if you go to the Joburg Market website, which is considered the price discovery point for South Africa, it's a good place as a farmer to gauge the price. They tell you the value sold that day, how many kgs and how many units. So you would have to do calculations as a farmer. So just delivering that information to them directly to their phone, um, and then also I saw over time because we sent them this information for about two years before I turned it into a chat bot. Um, I saw the farmers watch prices fluctuate and I watched them discuss in the groups oh, how spinach is getting so high, what's happening? Why isn't this price translating when the price drops or it goes up? Why isn't it translating to consumer level? I I'd see them like have that engagement and stuff. So now I was like, I don't have time. When I started the project, ARC assigned an intern to me who was pulling the prices, and I would just tell him what to do after the project ended. They're like, bye. So I was like, I don't have time to do this every day. So I got someone to build a chat bot that actually goes to the website to the Job Market website, scrapes the prices, and then automatically no, it doesn't post to groups anymore. A farmer can just get the number and chat to the to the bot. It also tells them how the market works, what packaging to use. So it's just a free resource for farmers to it's a market intelligence resource.

SPEAKER_00 14:59

That's so cool, and really meeting the farmers at their needs is really brilliant because at the end of the day, as a farmer, you want to make money. So you need to understand how you're gonna make that money. Because I think even in most cases, people who perhaps are the emerging farmers that you spoke about that you have the land, you have the money, but you don't really understand the principles and the methodology, rather, or the methods to actually make this money and to not let like to just not pour capital into a project and then you don't see that value. So I think that's such a fantastic resource, Palissa.

The Pivot Mindset Across Startups

SPEAKER_00 15:38

I wanted us to go back to you pivoting. You say that this is this, so this is your fourth startup, right?

SPEAKER_01 15:45

Yes, but it's my it's the first one that's mine, that's only mine.

SPEAKER_00 15:50

Well, yeah, the others you were with other people, but I mean, just that sort of mindset, because sometimes people get so fixated on an idea, right? And then you think, okay, if this doesn't work, that's it, hands up, surrender, whatever. So, what sort of thinking capacity or reasoning do you have that just makes you like go and then go and then go again?

SPEAKER_01 16:16

Yeah, that's a good question. I'd say the first startup I joined, I was working in research. So I was just working a normal job as a researcher. Luckily, it was in agriculture still, but I just and it was kind of almost like an NGO, but I was starting to learn a lot, and I was doing my master's at the time. So some of my my first startup, Desert Green, it was with a colleague or a student from tax that I went to school with, and I was just interested in like agri tech. That was becoming like a buzzy word, and I just wanted to see like perhaps startups can solve problems much quicker than corporates and NGOs and established companies can. So I was like, let me volunteer or like just see who I can join around me to learn and see what's happening. So Desert Green, we were trying to put an extension officer and an agronomist in the pockets of rural youth. It didn't get very far while I was there because we were all working, we all had full-time jobs, some people were starting families, but that's the first time I entered like an incubator. So I started getting trained on uh business science, startup. You know, I remember the lean startup was so popular those days. Um, so when while I was at Desert Green, I met another young man who started a company called No Seta, and he was trying to use IoT like devices in the ground and on your farm so that we could collect data and help farmers control and reduce how much water they use. So he approached me from the soil science side. He he wanted me to help him interpret because he's an engineer, so it's one thing for your soil moisture probe to tell you this is your moisture level, it's one thing for your flow meter to tell you this how much water was released, but you need to put all that information together and kind of tell the farmer, you know, this is how what's happening and this is what you need to do. Um, so those days it was kind of volunteer slash let me learn slash what's this thing about. Um, but yeah, I quickly learned a lot. I helped all those companies raise a little bit of money. I learned a lot when I was uh getting training in those incubators and stuff, and then Agricool came and I'd say it was it was out of the startups I'd been with, it was quite far ahead, it was a really functional business, so I was able to now really not just learn about agri tech, just actually be in agriculture. Um, so yeah, it it I would say it's a combination of loving to learn. I feel like I'm quite a team player, so I if your dream is exciting to me as well, I will do what I can do to support it. Um, and yeah, maybe it just fate, you know, I always had to go through this journey.

SPEAKER_00 19:11

Awesome, and I hope somebody really, you know, has picks up from that because many people want to start up things, but it's it's kind of difficult, and the fact that you were able to continue is really quite impressive. And speaking of which, can you just discuss some of those challenges in the startup phase, whether you're doing it as a collective or even now as you are venturing this more in your own Red Africa side that you're doing right now?

SPEAKER_01 19:40

Yeah,

Build Customer First Then Tech

SPEAKER_01 19:41

so I'd say, like, generally from the tech agri tech perspective, I find that there's such a tech is also very buzzy, it's also a buzzword, and when I say that, not to take away from it, uh while it is buzzy, it is such a great enabler, it is such a great equalizer, and it is such a great accelerator. But I think, especially in agriculture, something I've noticed, and then I think AgriCool did very well, is a lot of people wanna build the tech before they've built the value chain, or before they've built the network or the client base, or they've actually participated in solving the problem manually. So I find that for instance, someone says, Oh, I I know how to code, I know how to develop, I'm gonna create an e-marketplace where buyers and sellers can meet. Which buyer, like, why would they go onto your platform? Do you understand how most buyers operate? You know, do you understand how most farmers operate? How will you handle logistics? How will you handle so? Yes, of course, ultimately, understanding tech payment gateways, how to use algorithms to match loads, of course, eventually that will help and build this beautiful tool. But if you don't know any buyers, if you don't have a supply agreement, if you don't have a vetted, you know, who's gonna do quality assurance if it's just the e-market place? So I'd say number one, that's something I see a lot of businesses do, especially agri tech. Okay, so my first one of challenges maybe startups could face is is that right? And even there, I was about to say like being more product focused than like tech focused, but at the same time, I've been learning also, even like being very focused on a product, that's not good enough. You have to be focused on your customer. I I think that's actually backing up what I'm saying. Because if you are customer focused, it means you're gonna start your your your is it called your thesis. Your when you when you state your problems, uh when you do your problem statement, it's gonna be premised on what you see when you. deal with your customers, right? So you can solve their problem. Yeah. And then touch on like the bootstrapping, raising, how do you finance this this thing, right? In the early stage. So I think it's very difficult, especially for African and black entrepreneurs, because you want to build, you need a little bit of runway. And I know it looks like there's competitions and grants everywhere. They are there and they are accessible, but you know it's not everyone that gets them. Sometimes it's the same people that get them. So sometimes yeah you have to really like really put in extra hours or leave sometimes you have to leave your job. I mean it just depends how much you believe in what you're doing. Luckily for me I am the money I use to pay the people who work with me or to you know do stuff is from consulting and maybe that's because I'm a second time founder um so people have more faith in me. But I'd say that's a little bit of a challenge. But yeah it's fun you know being a business owner is challenging but fun.

SPEAKER_00 23:08

Yeah no but these are real realities and I think these are the conversations that are important to have especially with with many people who are excited because it's exciting in the beginning I can code and now with AI you can do everything with AI you know you want to start a great company but so what? Who's this going to reach? How is it going to reach them? Why and I think the really great question perhaps now also in the role that I'm in is really understanding the customer like why should I pick yours when another product already exists even if you say yours does A B C D, but that value addition really needs to be clear of your particular product. So I think that's really really great advice and perhaps advice that can only come with knowledge and wisdom and speaking and interacting with people who've been in the space. So nothing's really ever in vain it looks like when we when we are listening to your journey and where you are right now.

Perspective And Staying In The Game

SPEAKER_01 24:05

Yes 100% I think also like um whether something is in vain or not is about perspecti perspective. Yeah so I do try by all means to everything that happens to me good or bad I am grateful I say thank you for that because it just pushed me forward I learned something I gained something even if I lost something it's still it's still forward momentum.

SPEAKER_00 24:33

So yeah I uh perspective is is actually it's such an important tool for you to be able to like survive this planet but even as an entrepreneur for you to you know keep your head up not give up because sometimes I'm like what am I doing let me just go look for a job like the easier nine to five yeah no but this has been such a wonderful conversation so palessa as we wrap up if somebody's really interested in your work how can they get hold of you where do they find you because you have experience perhaps maybe even just for advice yeah how do they get hold of you okay so firstly I have pages for Balsa Mutaung and I have pages for Bread Africa.

SPEAKER_01 25:21

So

Farm In A Box And Coaching

SPEAKER_01 25:22

if you look up for Instagram for Twitter for LinkedIn for Facebook you can find me there. For Bread Africa we are on LinkedIn and Instagram and then my email is balisa at breadafrica.co.za and um I've been thinking a little bit about um just to quickly talk about a farm in a box that's our um main WhatsApp chatbot it's not free like Percy Price it's where I really try to help farmers do record keeping learn how to navigate the agricultural sector and prepare for audits and um food safety audits financial audits so I started that like I said to make consulting easier and to help farmers access markets and finance but I've been thinking about I I already do coach I already am a coach for SAB Foundation for their agritech startups so I've been thinking about doing one-on-one coaching so I'll be putting up links online on my social media so yeah if you can just google Bread Africa you will find me I'm on every platform so it shouldn't be difficult.

SPEAKER_00 26:32

Thank

Where To Find Bread Africa

SPEAKER_00 26:33

you so much and I mean when we share this episode we are gonna link and tag you so if you cannot find her by typing you will click something and we'll get directly to you but this has been such an awesome chat palessa I'm so glad that we did this I got to learn a lot more about you and the fantastic work that you're doing and I know there's so much more just hearing the passion that you have about the work that you do and the people who you serve like you said your customers it's it's really really quite beautiful and more and especially as a young black woman it gets me very excited and very biased. So it's really cool to see change makers like yourself just really running this race and forging ahead so congratulations for everything that you've done so far and everything that's gonna come thank you so much and and I wish we had more time because I want to ask you questions you know as a agricultural economist but I I guess at the time maybe I will get to interview you yeah no definitely this was about you this was about you so this this is really cool thank you so much for your time and to everybody else who's tuned in thank you so much for listening to another episode of the Root of the Sons podcast until next time