Fatuma had just harvested her best tomatoes yet. But without clear price information or direct access to the market, she ended up settling for whatever price a passing aggregator offered. She knew she had lost not just money, but months of effort. And she wasn’t alone.
For many smallholder farmers in Tanzania, harvesting a good crop is just the beginning. What comes after getting those crops to the market at a fair price is filled with uncertainty. Post-harvest losses in Tanzania account for 20–40% of perishable crops, according to FAO (2021), cutting deeply into farmer incomes. A good harvest often meets a bad market.
James, a farmer and former aggregator, had lived this reality from all sides. He had witnessed firsthand how quickly a promising yield could become a burden, piled in sacks, with nowhere to go and no leverage in negotiations. Crops sat in storerooms or by the roadside, unsold, exposed to weather, time, and fluctuating prices. The deeper problem was clear: information asymmetry. Farmers didn't know where to sell, how much to ask for, or who to trust. It was this pain point that inspired James to build a solution.
LeoLeo Gulio Smart is the result of that lived experience, an innovative digital platform that helps farmers and vendors make smarter, faster, and more informed decisions. It gives farmers access to real-time market data, connects them directly to verified vendors, and integrates mobile financial tools to enable transactions, loans, and insurance all in one place. For the first time, smallholder farmers can see market trends before harvesting, compare prices between regions, and choose how and when to sell.
But an idea alone wasn’t enough. When James and his growing team joined the Ifakara Innovation Hub (IIH), LeoLeo already had over 5,000 subscribers. What they needed was structure, refinement, and the resources to scale their impact. IIH provided just that—technical mentorship, product development coaching, and $5,000 in seed funding that catalyzed key milestones. With that support, LeoLeo trained hundreds of farmers and vendors across Njombe, Arusha, and Mbeya. They deployed local data agents, strengthened the app’s features (including offline capabilities), and partnered with RIKOLTO and ACDVOVA to expand their community reach.
The journey was not without its challenges. Many users especially vendors were hesitant to trust digital platforms, often due to fear of fraud and limited digital literacy. LeoLeo faced the difficult task of changing behavior in an industry where business had always been done face-to-face. But they rose to meet the challenge. By launching community-based training sessions, LeoLeo helped vendors understand how the app worked and why it mattered. They even partnered with Tigo to provide smartphones on a loan basis and ensure access to affordable internet. Slowly but surely, trust began to grow and so did adoption.
Today, LeoLeo operates in nine regions and 22 markets across Tanzania. The transformation is clear. Farmers are selling faster, avoiding post-harvest losses, and negotiating with confidence. Vendors are gaining credibility and unlocking access to financial services they never knew they qualified for. Women and youth are being trained as digital agents, earning income while bringing others into the ecosystem. And markets that once felt uncertain and opaque are now driven by real-time data, transparency, and trust.
“Now we can record sales, track crop demand, and even apply for loans all in the same tool,” says one market agent in Mbeya.
What LeoLeo represents is more than just a digital tool it is a cultural shift. It signals a move from survival to strategy. From guessing prices to comparing them. From waiting on middlemen to engaging with verified buyers. From lost time and spoiled produce to real transactions and growing incomes. The agricultural value chain, once disjointed and risky, is becoming efficient, predictable, and dignified.
For farmers like James, the journey from crop to customer is no longer a gamble it’s a plan.
And this progress wouldn’t have been possible without support. With guidance from Ifakara Innovation Hub and the generous backing of the Embassy of Switzerland and Fondation Botnar, LeoLeo Gulio Smart has grown from frustration to functionality, becoming a platform that not only works, but works for people.
As LeoLeo continues to scale, IIH remains committed to walking alongside this vision, helping to evolve the platform, amplify its reach, and unlock greater impact. Our mission is to help innovations like LeoLeo rewrite how communities interact with opportunity, ensuring that from the soil to the sale, agriculture becomes a channel for equity, resilience, and growth.
🎥 Watch how their story unfolds: https://youtu.be/A4fLaQha1qE
