**4. Socio-economics of root vegetable farmers**

There is an enormous variation in Nigerian agricultural production landscape in terms of age groups, social class, gender, educational attainment and background. The motivations behind farmers' enterprises, sustainability of systems are basically not the same. Therefore, the general assumption that farmers are solely motivated by the need to enhance food security does not always hold true. There are other intrinsic and extrinsic factors that propel farmers in their enterprise. Farmers have the desire for mastery of their enterprise and sense of achievement which arises when they have good harvests from their crops. As indicated in a Nigerian study, farmers of NRVs particularly onion, garlic, ginger in Kano state vary greatly in educational attainment (**Table 3**). Adewale and Oladeji [56] reported that onion, garlic, ginger farmers in Kano state are spread over all education levels. In Imo and Oyo states, farmers also have one form of education or the other [57]. This submission lends credence to the position of [58] that Nigerian farmers are not totally illiterate as they have one form of educational attainment or another. With this educational attainment, farmers are able to play a positive role in their societies as formal education provides an important foundation for knowledge, decision making and acceptance of vital innovation [59].

The gender distribution of NRV farmers is also highly variable and location-specific. The different roles men and women play in the society and in agricultural value chains are caused by gender disparity which causes differences in the distribution of resources, activities, decision-making, wealth as well as enjoyment of entitlement and rights [60]. There appears to be a dominance of male farmers involved in NRVs in Kano state. This is however due to the socio-cultural and religious inclination that places restrictions on the women gender. However, in Oyo state both male and female are involved in production and marketing of root vegetable crops such as garlic, turmeric etc. As is common with production of other vegetables, there are more females involved in the production, processing and marketing [57]. Majority 51.3% of producers and 57.0% of marketers were within the age bracket of 31–50 years indicating that both producers and marketers are still strong, mentally alert and active. These enterprises thus provide windows of opportunity for younger generations to participate. Furthermore, people engaged in root vegetable production and marketing are mostly married as the marriage institution is held in high esteem among rural


*Nigeria Root Vegetables: Production, Utilization, Breeding, Biotechnology and Constraints DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.106861*

#### **Table 3.**

*Comparative socio-economic characteristics of spices producers and marketers in Kano State, Nigeria.*

citizens whose occupation is mostly agrarian in nature. A large proportion (38.0%) of producers and 45.7% of marketers had more than 10 years of experience in production and marketing of root vegetables, respectively. This indicates that a large proportion of them are experienced in the production and marketing of root vegetables; they are therefore knowledgeable in the enterprise and are able to fully comprehend the intricacies and complexities of the enterprises.

Large household size usually characterizes farming households in Nigeria. According to [61], Nigeria has a national average of 5.9 persons per household. Large household is essential to traditional agriculture in Nigeria where the main source of labor is the family members. In some cases, members of the community are hired to work on the farms at pre-agreed sums of money, by barter (by giving crops or animals in return for work done on the farm) or by rendering services such as working on other farmers farms in return. In Kano state, a large proportion of these farmers have large household size which range between 10 and 20 persons [56]. This resonate the position of [62] who submitted that farmers in northern Nigeria maintain large households to meet the large labor requirements during farming seasons. This way, they make use of the children and dependents for farming activities rather than pay for hired labor. Majority of NRV are cultivated on farm sizes that ranged between <1 and 5 ha of farm land. This reveals that majority are small-holder farmers which confirm the characteristic peasant nature of agriculture in Nigeria. This is also as

submitted by the National Bureau of Statistics [63] revealing the system of agriculture among farmers is on small holdings. Small holder production however is labor intensive and thus able to provide employment to a large share of rural population. Furthermore, when proper conditions are put in place to enable small farms grow and have access to markets, off-farm employment increases.

The annual income from root vegetables production is also shown in **Table 4**. It is indicative of a promising enterprise as majority (54.3%) earn an annual income between of 100,000–499,000 and 38.6% earn between 500,000 and 999,000. It reveals that root vegetables are capable of increasing the income of producing households which resound the view of [64] that root vegetables such as ginger, garlic, turmeric are crops of high value with the potentiality of enhancing household income and improving livelihoods.

The estimates of marketing margin and marketing efficiency of garlic and ginger is shown in **Table 5**. The net marketing margin for garlic is 3, 449.0 per bag. For


#### **Table 4.**

*Household size, landholding and income of root vegetable production in Kano state.*


#### **Table 5.**

*Marketing margin and efficiency analysis for garlic and ginger in Kano state.*

*Nigeria Root Vegetables: Production, Utilization, Breeding, Biotechnology and Constraints DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.106861*

ginger, the net marketing margin is 2277.0. Ginger has a higher average marketing efficiency (1.37) which implies that for every 1.00 spent in purchasing ginger in Kano state, the marketer will accrue 37 k as returns to his/her investment. For garlic in Kano state, with an average marketing efficiency of 1.31, it implies that for every 1.00 spent in purchasing garlic, a return of 31 k will be gained. This further reveals root vegetable production and marketing as a promising enterprise capable of generating sufficient profit.

#### **4.1 Economic values and contribution to livelihoods**

Root vegetables such as ginger, garlic onion do not need expanse of land for profitable production, they can be cultivated without excessive investments as they are usually produced with little inputs (cash, labor and land). They are good crops to be included in small-scale farming systems and are also suitable for small garden production [64]. Farmers can derive a lot of benefits from root vegetables as crop with high value that requires little cash that can yield more than double the income accrued from staples and other horticultural crops [64]; to enhance household income and thus improve their livelihoods. As a production enterprise, they can be a source of additional employment opportunities for the farm family and money realized can be used as a 'safety net' during periods of need in order to improve livelihoods. Value-adding activities and sales of processed root vegetables can also be a good potential for small-scale processing (on-farm or off-farm) industries to generate higher income. Their production is especially an avenue to provide opportunities for women due to the fact that they can easily be grown in gardens in and around homes. In addition to providing opportunities for the womenfolk to start commercial enterprises and be able to participate in the local economy, root vegetables production enables women earn income for themselves, be involved in trading, create social networks, enhance their family status and their social status in the community and to provide added security to their household in case of abandonment or adversities.
