*3.3.1 Costs and returns of taro farmers*

Based on transaction path 3 and 4 (please refer to **Figure 1**), switching buyer from middleman to seller will yield a substantially greater profit; that is, from 3.395 to 9.651 profit-to-cost ratio. However, other factors are present such as bulkiness of harvest, which it is likely that great portion of the harvest will not be sold and set aside to rot. The resulting loss to farmers can likely outweigh the benefit of a higher price. This provides little or no options to farmers but to sell it to middlemen even though it will

**Figure 1.**

*Distinct taro value chain transaction paths in partido district, the Philippines.*


#### **Table 2.**

*Average production costs and returns of taro farmers (Partido district, the Philippines).*

result to, if not loss, lesser profit. It implies that in **Figure 1**, transaction paths 2, 3, and 4 are more profitable to farmers, yet they often choose transaction path 1.

The study also revealed that farm production averages 2,727.730 kilograms per hectare, which is too far below the quantity a result of the study conducted by PSA. This could be due to the non-application of organic fertilizer [14]. In fact, the respondent with the highest production per hectare was the only one using fertilizer. It is followed by the two respondents having the highest time spent per week in Taro farming (**Table 2**).

Taro sellers, on the other hand, exhibit a reasonable profit of Php39.218 per kilogram of Taro tubers or 9.56 margin-to-cost ratio. It can also be noted in the figure that *The Dynamics of Taro (*Colocasia esculenta*) through Value Chain Analysis and Crop… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.106853*


#### **Table 3.**

*Average production costs and returns of sellers (Partido district, the Philippines).*

logistics, a non-value-adding activity, takes up much of the portion of the total cost for farmers and sellers. This is due to the bulkiness and low value of Taro tubers which cannot take substantial expenses without suffering a net loss.

#### *3.3.2 Costs and returns of taro sellers*

Taro merchants, on the other hand, appear to maximize profit, earning PhP24.38 per kilogram of taro produce, or 303% gross returns. Farmers have the largest gross returns, followed by sellers, processors, and intermediaries, according to the prior and subsequent financial statements. Furthermore, it appears that taro intermediaries do not necessarily advance in the district, thus the actors are mostly farmers and merchants. Middlemen must outsource and transact other root crops or agricultural items other than taro since their revenues are lesser (**Table 3**).
