Further, the sale of entire fields of chat, the major cash crop, to Addis Ababa merchants may contribute to the spread of the disease, since these merchants cut enset leaves to wrap chat, perhaps using contaminated knives. Kocho is kept for long periods, with pits being changed periodically. A fungus affects long stored kocho. Figure 10.5 shows that rich households process many mature plants less often and their storage period is longer than poor households. The latter process small quantities more frequently, use immature plants, and quickly consume their stored kocho.
Wealthier households hire labor for processing, while the poor exchange labor.
Female-headed households face labor constraints in many aspects of enset production, and are more likely to be poor. Wealthier farmers grow and consume more cereals than enset, while poorer ones lease bits of unused land and sell their labor for cereal production, but eat mostly enset products themselves. As a result, there are two systems, termed here Hadiya 1 and Hadiya 2. In the former, cereals predominate over enset, while the latter is completely enset-based. Ironically, they do not mention land holdings as a criterion.