**3. Results and discussion**

### **3.1 Socio-demographic profile of each player and level of involvement of farmers in the taro value chain in Partido district, the Philippines**

The table shows that the average age of the farmers is 55.3 years old and that the majority are in the age bracket of 41–50. As compared with the result of the PSA study which revealed an average age of 48, it can be interpreted that this study does not present any notable difference against the PSA's as far as age is concerned. The average age for middlemen/processors and sellers is 42 and 52.70, respectively and the majority of the respondents are also in the bracket of 41–50. **Table 1** also shows that 60% percent of the farmers are male, 85% of middlemen are male and 58% of the sellers


#### **Table 1.**

*Players in the taro value chain's socio-demographic characteristics (Partido district, the Philippines).*

*The Dynamics of Taro (*Colocasia esculenta*) through Value Chain Analysis and Crop… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.106853*

are female which reflects the different gender roles in production and marketing. The findings of the study are congruent with the results as corroborated in Cassava postharvest systems. Women are responsible for marketing while men are responsible for farming [23]. However, this study does not deal with the issues about gender involvement in technology along with the VC, specifically the level of gender involvement in Taro processing when commercialization and mechanization increase.

The level of farmers' income was found below the country's poverty threshold (5.41 × Php 1,813 = PhP9,800) while sellers' income hovers above the threshold (8.25 × Php 1,813 = Php 14, 957 & 8.618 × 1,813 = 15,625). It indicates that taro farmers are resource-limited which a typical scenario is because taro can be grown with less or no farm inputs [14]. On the other hand, taro sellers live slightly above the poverty threshold. It's also worth noting that both actors have significantly more family members than the country's average household size of 5.2 individuals. Both players have the same civil status and educational attainment model classes.
