**2.1 Materials**

The analysis was carried out in 2020, during the emergence of CoVid-19 in the region but before the impact of three major typhoons that hit the region in the same year, destroying taro output severely.

Key informant interviews (KII) and focus group discussions (FGD) were undertaken in order to acquire primary data. Furthermore, document review was oriented to collect extensive data that might be used to compare study findings to current assertions on a certain issue. Because there are no existing records of taro players in the Partido district, a purposive technique using snowball sampling was utilized to find the responders.

The investigation includes every recognized, operational, and identifiable entity of farmers, merchants, and middlemen. Ten producers (planters/farmers), seven middlemen and processors, and twelve sellers of the commodity responded. Other major informants who contributed significantly to the study's completion were Municipal Agriculturists, Local Government Unit (LGU) officials, Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) employees, and Department of Agriculture (DA) officers. In order to collect data, the researcher employed a structured questionnaire as the major tool.

The preliminary inquiry was first carried out in conjunction with the Municipal Mayor's Office in several municipalities within the Partido area. The researcher worked with several officials to find the respondents after determining possible barangays. Crop accounting spreadsheets were used to construct summaries of pertinent accounting information using Stata and Excel.

#### **2.2 Methods**

To evaluate the roles and relationship dynamics of participants in the network, a value chain analysis and value chain mapping were conducted. Crop accounting techniques were utilized to assess, account for, and examine productivity, logistics, and marketing costs, value-added, and returns.

The profitability of total activity in each chain was determined using the Return on Revenue (ROR) method. It calculated the association between net income and revenue generated by the activity. The Gross Profit Rate (GPR) was computed to examine the link between cost of sales and gross revenue in determining the degree of company risk. The Cost to Revenue Ratio (EC/R) was calculated to examine each player's expected income in a certain transaction chain.

Furthermore, the profit-to-cost ratio was utilized to analyze the overall attractiveness of the activity by measuring the interaction between the profit generated and the costs expended. The value-added in each chain was computed to determine the activity's liquidity.

The equations and formulae below were used [22]*:*

$$\text{Gross Sales} = \text{Quantity Sold} \ge \text{Unit price};\tag{1}$$

Cost of Goods Sold Direct Materials Direct Labor = +

> Variable Overhead Costs Fixed Overhead Costs; + + (2)

$$\text{Gross Margin} \left( \text{in pesos} \right) = \text{Sales} - \text{Cost of Goods Sold;} \text{and} \tag{3}$$

$$\text{Gross Margin Percentage} = \text{Gross Margin} / \text{Sales} \ge \text{100};\tag{4}$$

$$\text{Value Added} \left( VA \right) = \text{Costs incurred} - \text{selling price}; \tag{5}$$

$$ROR = \frac{netincome}{gross income};\tag{6}$$

$$GPR = \frac{gross income}{gross revenue};\tag{7}$$

$$\frac{EC}{R} = \frac{TotalExpenses}{grossrevenue};\tag{8}$$

$$ProfittoCostRatio = \frac{Profit}{Costs} \,\tag{9}$$
