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The study focuses on the cost and return analysis of ginger production in the guinea savannah agro ecology of Nigeria. The study is aimed at highlighting the profitability of ginger production with a view to informing and influencing farmers and relevant stakeholders. The study was conducted at Kajuru, Kaduna state in the Guinea Savannah agro ecological zone of Nigeria, during the 2010 and 2011 planting seasons. The objectives of the study include: to estimate the cost and returns of ginger production, determine the returns cost ratio of cultivating one hectare of ginger in the study area. To achieve these, one hectare of farm land was planted out with the UG1variety of ginger, during 2010 and 2011 planting seasons. All agronomic practices were applied as recommended. Data were collected using the cost route approach on all the inputs used. Data analyses was carried out using the income statement to determine the gross return, total cost of production, profit and the returns cost ratio. The result shows that the total cost of cultivating a hectare of ginger in the area is 677572.5, with a gross return of 1,382,482. Also a returns cost ratio of 2.04:1 was obtained. This implies that ginger farming in the guinea savannah of Nigeria will attract 2.04 times the capital investment of the farmer. Among the various inputs, cost of labour (50.57%) and planting materials (30.38%) contributed higher to the total variable cost of production. It was therefore concluded that ginger production is a viable enterprise in the study area. The study recommended that ginger farmers should employ labour saving devices in their operations while some of them consider going into commercial seed ginger production using technologies developed by research Institutes.

The study on marketing channel to determine market performance for ware yam (yam tuber >1.0 kg) Dioscorea spp was conducted in Abia State, Nigeria. Both purposive and random sampling techniques were used to collect the data used to assess the marketing channel in terms of its structural framework, marketing margin and mark-up policy of traders. The Allen's (1959) simple ordinary least squares (OLS) linear regression model was used to determine the mark-up policies of the traders in the study area. The results of the study showed that the marketing channel is semi-decentralized with socio-economic significance for efficient transfer of product from the farm to the consumer. The marketing margins between the different marketing levels are positively related, and the traders use both the fixed and percentage margin policies to determine the selling price of their product, to reflect the utility created in the product, in order to maximize consumer satisfaction and farmer share relative to marketing share of consumer expenditure on the product. The marketing margins and mark-up policies of the traders are significantly related based on the measure of fitness of the market prices R 2 's at the F 0.01 level. The results of the study have implications for sustainable increases in the levels of employment, output, consumption, better income distribution and poverty reduction in the study area.

This study assessed the performance of Nigeria in the world ginger trade using available secondary data from the United Nations commodity trade statistics. The trade performance of Nigeria was based on world ginger export characteristics, value of trade and quantity traded from 2008 to 2012 assessed on yearly and cumulative bases. The result indicates that during the five year period, Nigeria recorded an annual growth of 39%. But in the year 2011-2012, Nigeria lost in terms of price during this period by 24% despite the fact that the unit price for Nigeria ginger was higher ($2,463/ton) than the world average ($727). In terms of share in world exports, Nigeria contributed only 3.6% and listed on 6th position for ginger export. The world is paying prime price for Germany's ($3,758), UK's ($3,450) and Nigerian ($2,463) Ginger. Nigeria ginger during the period under review contributed a total of $115.564m on the basis of value to the world ginger value of $2401.756m representing a share of 4.81%. Cumulatively, a total of 51,483 tons of ginger was contributed by Nigeria to the world ginger market which is 1.35% of the world total (3,800,098 tons) during the period under review. This study revealed that Nigeria has over the years been an active participant in the world ginger trade and has contributed significantly to its growth. On the overall, the performance of Nigeria in the world ginger trade during the period under review cannot be described as blazing because the country has the largest area under ginger cultivation in the world and her ginger is one of the world's best and highly valued in terms of unit price. It is therefore recommended that the ginger transformation program be sustained so as to boost local production and activate the ginger value chain for greater production, processing and marketing efficiency.

This RTB Working Paper is intended to disseminate research and practices about production and utilization of roots, tubers and bananas and to encourage debate and exchange of ideas. The views expressed in the papers are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily refl ect the offi cial position of RTB, CGIAR or the publishing institution.

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The study was conducted to examine the gender-related factors influencing resource use efficiency of smallholder cassava farmers in Ebony state, Nigeria. Multi-stage sampling technique was employed in selecting 80 respondents from two agricultural zones in the State for the study. Interview schedule was used to obtain information from respondents. Data were analysed using frequency, percentage and stochastic frontier production function. The results revealed that more of the younger female farmers than the males were in cassava production while land ownership was still in the hands of the male farmers in the State. However, both gender groups had similar production constraints. The results further indicated that household size, membership of cooperative society, number of extension contacts, age, farming experience, farm size and land ownership significantly affected the technical efficiency of the farmer categories but educational status only affected that of the females in cassava production in the State. The males and females had mean technical efficiency of 0.77 and 0.74 respectively. Although the farmer groups were not technically efficient enough, the males were observed to be more efficient than the females in cassava production in the State. Therefore, policies to enhance efficiency and productivity of the farmers in the State should critically consider those variables that are significant on gender basis