Digitizing Data: How DA Partnered with IFAD and Samoa’s Ministry of Agriculture & Fisheries to Support Farmers and Fishers

As a small, remote Pacific Island country, Samoa’s agricultural profile is necessarily niche—its main exports are fresh fish, taro, beer, coconut products and nonu juice. Agriculture is hugely important for Samoan livelihoods, employing the largest proportion of the labor force out of any sector of the economy. 

In pursuit of the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) for achieving zero hunger—which seeks to double the agricultural productivity and incomes of small-scale food producers by 2030— Samoa’s Matching Grants Programme (MGP) supported smallholder farmers and fishers through a combination of technical, business, and financial assistance. DA partnered with Samoa’s Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries to create a more streamlined and efficient grant approval process, maximizing investments made by the World Bank and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD).

Grants for Smallholder Farmers and Fishers Were in High Demand

There was massive demand in Samoa for matching grants, with nearly 3,300 Samoan farmers and fishers—over 1.5% of the country’s population—registering for the first round in 2021. The grant approval process required each registrant to be verified through a field visit. Initially, field officers collected data from these visits on paper, then returned to the office to manually input data into Excel sheets. However, this system proved cumbersome. Many field officers did not have the time or energy needed to spend hours entering data after long days of field visits. Additionally, the process risked human error and lost paperwork.

Shifting From a Paper Application System to a Digital One

DA worked with Samoan authorities to replace paper applications with a simplified digital template. Taking user needs into account, the new tool:

• Worked on mobile devices 
• Operated offline, allowing data entry in the field 
• Was GIS-integrated, linking each entry to a physical location (this was especially useful since many applicants did not have official addresses) 

Most importantly, DA trained field teams on how to use the digital form and worked with head office colleagues to help them manage and analyze the data.

Digitizing Data Saved Time and Increased Production

The digital tool improved productivity among field officers and created a more rigorous and functional data set to help guide the Ministry’s decision-making. 

Key outcomes included: 

• 3,300 grant applications received 
• 827 grants disbursed by the end of 2022
• An average of 5% production increase for livestock farmers and 14% increase for crop farmers (drawn from an analysis of the first 300 disbursements)

The digital tool also halved the amount of time spent with each farmer on field visits and expedited the process overall, enabling quicker grant disbursement and a more efficient process. These collective efforts to transform the field visit data collection system led to results that matter for the country’s farmers and fishers. Learn firsthand how this work impacted a crop farmer in Samoa here.

DA has worked with governments, multilaterals, and philanthropies to improve data processes—and deliver impact for people around the world. If you’re interested in enhancing efficiency and data-driven decision-making in your organization, start a conversation here.

‍