**1. Introduction**

Vegetables are plants cultivated for their leaves, succulent stems, young shoots, fruits or a combination of these parts. They form an integral part of everyday diet and include diverse plant species with considerable economic and medicinal properties. Vegetables are protective foods for maintenance of health and for prevention of diseases. Nigerian Root vegetables (NRVs) such as Ginger (*Zingiber officinale*), garlic (*Allium sativum*), turmeric (*Curcuma longa*), onion (*Allium cepa*) and carrot (*Daucus carota*) can be defined as vegetables cultivated for their edible underground parts. True roots such as taproots can be botanically differentiated from tuberous roots from non-roots such as bulbs, corms, rhizomes, and tubers, the word "root vegetable" being applied to all of them as it pertains to their agricultural and culinary usage. Root vegetables are rich in nutrients such as minerals, vitamins and fiber, and play important and valuable roles in nutritional, health, economic, social, cultural and ecological aspects of rural and urban communities in Nigeria and all over the world. Root vegetables constitute an important component of the Nigerian cultural heritage where they play vital roles in the tradition, food and income security of many households. Root vegetables (RVs) are able to make significant contributions to food security and nutrition, enhance livelihoods of marginal and smallholder farmers as well as improve the wellbeing of households. Advantages of planting NRVs include the ease of incorporating them into existing cropping systems, provide relatively higher earnings than most of the cash crops, they can be produced on small and barely productive lands, can be successfully cultivated under varying climatic conditions, and short production cycles. In addition, they require few purchased inputs, requires few resources and produces high yields with robust nutritional values. To realize higher return and the desired impact, it will be necessary to increase production of NRVs within the major areas of production as clusters of micro-enterprises. Pests and diseases can have devastating effects on vegetable crops if not well managed. According to [1], damage caused by pests on vegetable at various growth stages on the field to harvesting, storage and also during conveyance can lead to 5–40% crop loss annualy which poses a devastating effect on food and nutrition security for the rising Nigerian population. However, various approaches have been employed by researchers to tackle the menace of pests and diseases in root vegetable crops ranging from cultural practices, biological control, use of indigenous knowledge, plant extracts, pheromones, synthetic pesticides, use of improved planting materials and Integrated Pest Management (IPM) approach. This study reviews some of the efforts made so far in Nigeria on root vegetables to collect and conserve their germplasm, improve their production, utilization and trade, examine the major pests and diseases affecting them and the various approaches adopted by researchers in their management and finally post-harvest technology applied to them.
