Agile Surveys for Real-Time Insights into Farmer Resilience

How rapid feedback loops are helping farmers and programs adapt in fragile contexts

Why Real-Time Data Matters

Farmers live with constant uncertainty.
Weather patterns shift, markets fluctuate, and new shocks can emerge overnight. Understanding how farmers adapt to these changing realities requires more than occasional snapshots — it calls for tools that capture experiences as they unfold.

That’s why COSA developed agile survey modules designed to measure both fragility and resilience at regular intervals.
Instead of waiting months for feedback, these short, frequent surveys deliver real-time insights into what farmers are experiencing and how resilient they are.

The result? Programs can adjust quickly, offer targeted support when it’s needed most, and significantly increase the chances of successful outcomes.

“Agility in data means listening more often — and acting faster — so programs stay relevant to the realities farmers face.”

How Agile Surveys Work

Agile surveys were created to track program performance while measuring beneficiaries’ resilience and fragility in real time. Through direct farmer feedback, these surveys help:

Assess progress toward goals
Gauge satisfaction with services
Evaluate program results
Identify areas of vulnerability or resilience

This approach creates a feedback loop where farmers’ voices directly shape program delivery — revealing what’s working, what isn’t, and where resources should be directed.

A Cost-Effective Approach to Data Collection

High-frequency, digital data collection is not only faster — it’s also cheaper and more scalable.
Compared to traditional in-person interviews, agile survey methods generate reliable insights at a fraction of the cost:

💰 $69 saved per operator-led phone survey (CATI)
💰 $71 saved per automated phone survey (IVR)

By leveraging mobile connectivity, programs can adapt in real time — ensuring interventions remain relevant, effective, and responsive to evolving challenges.

At Its Core: A Feedback Loop for Change

Agile surveys are about more than data collection — they’re about putting farmer realities at the center of decision-making.
By listening more often and acting faster, we increase the likelihood that programs truly strengthen resilience and help communities thrive in uncertain times.

Case Study: Agile Food System Resilience in Fragile Contexts

Testing Agile Tools in Sudan

As part of the Sustainable Natural Resources and Livelihoods Program (SNRLP) — implemented by IFAD — COSA and ISDC collaborated to assess the effectiveness of Agile tools in collecting resilience data within fragile agropastoral contexts.

Funded by the Gates Foundation, this multi-year collaboration developed a conceptual and measurement framework to assess food system resilience in regions marked by volatility and uncertainty.

The project demonstrates how Agile data approaches can rapidly generate actionable insights, helping organizations like IFAD understand what drives resilience — and how their actions can improve outcomes more cost-effectively.

Detailed Findings: Time, Cost, and Validity

The first round of data collection used both operator-led phone calls (CATI) and automated voice calls (IVR) to reach 3,566 farmers.
Key findings included:

Cost Savings:
CATI and IVR surveys were 10× more affordable than in-person interviews (saving $69–71 per call).
Duration:
CATI calls averaged 11 minutes, IVR calls 14 minutes — short enough to manage, long enough to capture meaningful insights.
Reach and Response:
Network issues meant many phones were unreachable. When contact was made, 74% of farmers completed CATI calls versus 7% for IVR, showing a clear preference for live operators.
Demographics and Patterns:
- Education and wealth increased the likelihood of responding to IVR calls.
- Gender and age showed decreasing response probability for IVR (women and older farmers were less likely to respond).
- Conflict-free regions like Butana and Kassala had the highest CATI response rates.

These insights reveal both the potential and limitations of agile survey tools — pointing to where adjustments are needed to balance cost-effectiveness and reliability in fragile contexts.

Resilience Insights from the Field

Among 358 farmers surveyed in both 2018 (baseline) and 2024 (feedback survey):

Shock Exposure:
Increased from 65% in 2018 to 95% in 2024.
Price volatility rose (43% → 55%), while plant and livestock disease incidents dropped (33% → 6%).
Recovery:
Two-thirds (67%) reported not recovering or being worse off after shocks.
The average recovery score improved slightly (from 4.1 in 2018 to 3.87 in 2024 on a 0–5 scale).
Coping Strategies:
- 55% reduced non-essential spending.
- 29% cut essential expenses like food — a worrying signal of ongoing vulnerability.

Taken together, these results underscore both resilience and fragility. While some improvement is evident, recovery remains slow — reinforcing the need for adaptive, data-driven programming that helps households move beyond crisis management toward sustained resilience.

Explore the full dataset on the Agile Data Platform →

Next Steps: Building a Framework for the Future

Building on these findings, the team developed an analytical framework for measuring food system resilience across three levels — micro, meso, and macro — to differentiate between systemic fragility and individual resilience.

The framework integrates:

Secondary data sources (satellite imagery, shocks and stressor datasets)
Practitioner data
Frequent, short-duration farmer surveys

Together, these provide a comprehensive and agile measurement system for resilience in Sudan’s challenging environment.

About the Partners

IFAD – International Fund for Agricultural Development
Supports projects that promote prosperity, food security, and resilience by connecting rural people to finance, markets, and technology — and by catalyzing investment and innovation for lasting change.

ISDC – International Security and Development Center
Conducts research to improve lives in contexts shaped by conflict, fragility, and humanitarian crisis — using data and evidence to inform better policies and programs.

SNRLP – Sustainable Natural Resources and Livelihoods Program
Implemented by IFAD, the program enhances food security and resilience among pastoralist, agro-pastoralist, and smallholder farmers through joint resource management and livelihood diversification.

About the Agile Data Project

Agile Data approaches are transforming how development programs collect, analyze, and act on data.
By emphasizing standardization, relevance, and rigor, COSA’s Agile Data Approaches and Innovations for Monitoring (ADAIM) project promotes frequent, low-cost, and actionable data snapshots that improve efficiency and impact in real time.