But women's work is often relegated to lesser significance than men's. Women in wealthy households became labor managers by hiring poor women to process and poor men to cultivate. Women in middle income and poor households exchange labor for processing. Men are believed to be banned from enset processing areas, but were observed helping among the Gurage. They strategize as to the amount of surplus kocho and bulla they can sell off and still have enough for the household.
Men keep cash from the sales of cash crops.
Additional research on marketing, both locally and in urban areas, is required. Men played a greater role in discussing the cause of 'drop-out' other than harvesting . . . In addition to the gender division of labor, there are gender issues concerning varieties selected for planting and time of harvesting. This categorization has nothing to do with the biological or reproductive parts of the plant, but with a set of qualities and characteristics related to desirability, time of harvesting, fiber and food content, softness and hardness, palatability, length of fermentation period, size, growth rates, and resistance to disease and pests. Whether or not there are gender-specific reasons for these choices or if women manage to prevail in their own preferences needs to be investigated.