A taro farmer says he and his family have not paid much attention to the sort of benefits that came with daylight savings in Samoa.

Toa Amataga, who grows and sells taro as a livelihood, told Samoa Observer that his family hasn’t paid much attention to the issue since the Government introduced it.

“I mean up until now we don’t know how much of a good impact daylight savings have made to our family,” he said. “All we know is that it changes the time for me to wake up and go to the plantation before the sun is up and that’s it.”

According to Mr Amataga, other taro farmers like himself have the same view about the impact of daylight savings on their work.

The Samoa Government introduced daylight savings in 2010 though the official policy has had mixed reaction from Samoans, in terms of the benefits that would come from such a policy.

Local businessman and Toleafoa Enterprises Managing Director, Aiono Afaese Toleafoa, told Samoa Observer last year that daylight savings has not translated to more income generation opportunities for his business.

He said at that time that the only benefit he got from daylight savings was he had more time to exercise. 

“To me the change in time (daylight saving) is good because the workers will get off early especially those that live far away,” he said at that time. “Daylight saving allows me more time to take a walk after work and it’s better that way. But it hasn’t had any impact on the cash flow (for the business).” 

Daylight savings in Samoa ended 4am on Sunday, April 5 with the country going back by an hour to 3am.