Samoa Agriculture Census 2009 - Land and Irrigation: Census Theme 2 and 3

1. Regional Workshop for Monitoring the SDGs related to
Food and Agriculture Sector and on the WCA 2020
Nadi, Fiji 6-10 November 2017
Samoa Agriculture Census 2009 - Land and
Irrigation
Technical Session 11: Census Theme 2 and 3
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Soo Junior Iuvale
Information Officer
Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries.
soo.iuvale@maf.gov.ws

2. Introduction and Backround
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i. Samoa Agriculture Census 2009 was the third Agriculture Census undertaken by
Samoa Bureau of Statistics in collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture and
Fisheries and have been carried out every 10 years (1989, 1999, 2009). Preparation for
Agriculture Census 2019 underway.
ii. Enumeration was carried out in 5 weeks from November to December 2009 by selected
enumerators under the supervisión of SBS and MAF Staff allocated in specific districts
and villages.
Authority and Source of Funding.
i. The Legal Authority to conduct and collect such information rest with the Government
Statistician (SBS) under the Statistics Act 1971 – Act has been reviewed and passed by
Parliament now updated to Statistics Act 2015.
ii. AusAID was the major funding source in 2009 with assistance from Government Local
Budget.

3. Technical Assistance
All technical aspects regarding the census was provided by the Ministry
of Agriculture and Fisheries and Samoa Bureau of Statistics
 Definitions of Technical terminology within questionnaire.
 Basic knowledge on agricultural practises
 Training for enumerators
 Systematic sampling of agricultural households
 Basic knowledge on map reading on the field.
 Basic interviewing skills (face to face) with households.
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4. Methodology.
The Methodology for conducting the Agriculture Census
2009 for Samoa was a combination of a Complete Count
and Sample Survey. Hence it was executed as a two part
process.
 First part covers All Households (primary statistical
unit) including Non-Agricultural Households (not
required to complete a holding form) and Agricultural
Households (need to complete the holding form).
 Second part covers the 25 percent of all the Agriculture
Households, with the selection made on systematic
sample basis (on every fourth holding selected).
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5. Geographical Regional Coverage
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Samoa consists of about 330 villages, which are also grouped
into 41 districts. These districts are further grouped into 4
Census Regions
i. Apia Urban Area (AUA)
ii. North West of Upolu (NWU)
iii. Rest of Upolu (ROU)
iv. Savaii
For census purposes, each village is divided into census
blocks and
in total there are 863 census blocks.

6. Land
 In the Census 2009, 86% of the total lands of Samoa are Customary
Lands
◦ Challenge: Most customary lands can be accessed by more than one household
(extended family).
Mechanisms in place to overcome this within the questionnaire to
avoid double counting of same holdings and parcels of land being
accessed by more than 1 household
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7. Land Use
There were six major classifications regarding the land use in the Samoa 2009 Census
questionnaire
a) Land under tree crops (trees bearing fruits and nuts)
b) Land under temporary crops ( taro, yams, taamu, vegetables, etc)
c) Land under tree crops and temporary crops (both a and b)
d) Land under Temporary Fallow
e) Land under Non Agricultural use
f) Land under Livestock.
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8. Main Land Use of Parcels in Samoa, Agriculture Census 2009
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Tree
Crops
10%
Temporary
Crops
12%
Tree Crops
&
Temporary
Crops
55%
Temporary
Fallow
3%
Non
Agriculture
Use
6%
Livestock
14%
Main Land Use of Parcels in Samoa,
Agriculture Census 2009.

9. Irrigation.
 According to the World Programme for the Census of Agriculture
2020, Irrigation covers the whole area of land actually irrigated or
equipped for irrigation in working order.
 Samoa is a tropical island and generally rains throughout the year,
so there are no irrigation systems for most farming households so
there were no irrigation questions included in census questionnaire.
 Perhaps only for commercial farmers growing vegetables are there
irrigation systems in place but the number of commercial farmers in
Samoa is insignificant compared to subsistence farmers.
 Will consult stakeholders for 2019 census to gauge if there is a need
to capture irrigation in questionnaire
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10. Thank you
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11. Aquaculture
 Aquaculture in Samoa was not a popular farming system during the
last census of 2009 and was not collected.
 However, significant development in aquaculture in Samoa has
taken place since 2009.
 Because of recent developments it was decided to capture these
types of aquaculture households in the Agriculture Survey 2015 as a
start to estimate the number of households engaged in this type of
farming activity.
 Including these same questions in the 2019 Agriculture Census will
give us complete count of aquaculture households.
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12. Fisheries
Fisheries section in the Census 2009 collected
 Type of fishing engaged by the household (Inshore,Offshore or Both).
 Type of fishing gear used (Long line,Fish-net,Spear etc).
 The number of fishing trip(s) made during the last month.
 How much of the fish caught during the last month were sold
 How many members of the household are normally engaged in fishing.
 Main purpose of fishing activity (Home Consumption, Mainly For Sale or Both)
 Type of fishing vessel used or owned by household (Motorized and Non-
motorized vessel)
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13. Thank you
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