Respondents’ Demographic Characteristics
The primary aim of this study was to identify the social and economic opportunities of women engaged on trading Injera on street at Nekemte town. In order to achieve the study objectives data was obtained from women currently engaged on the trading on Injera at Nekemte town. In general, 50 women were participated in this study. All respondents were females (50; 100%), because male does not engaged on producing and selling Injera at Nekente town. Half of the respondents’ age was in between 21 to 30 years (25; 50%) and least number of respondents age was between 41 to 50 years (3%). The maximum age of respondent was 55 years while the minimum age was 14 years. The average age of women engaged on the trading Injera was 27.12 years. This implies women from teenager to older were engaged on trading Injera at Nekemte town, however, the youth takes more share. Most women were literate (45; 90%) except (5; 10%) of respondents which were illiterate. More than half (47; 54%) of the respondents have completed 1 to 8th grade and only 8% of the respondents have diploma. Most of women engaged on selling Injera on the street are literate. Regarding to work experience, near half (24; 48%) of women have 1 to 5 years work career in the engagement, however, very few women (2; 4%) have more than 15 years work experience. Others possess very few work experience on the engagement because they do not consider the engagement as future career rather for short time relief. The average work experience of the respondents was 3.60 years. These women engaged on trading Injera on the street were not only for their own survival purpose rather they were engaged on it for surviving the life their dependents too. In this case, most women (15; 30%) were living with at least three dependents. Unfortunately, two women (2; 4%) were serving eight dependents. The average dependent number per women was around 4 lives. This is one source of the challenges of women engaged on selling Injera on the street.
Regarding to the Injera product, Teff, maize and sorghum were most cereal flours used by women engaged on Injera trading at Nekemte town. By mixing the flours of these cereals together, they produce Injera with different quality standards. Even though we have more than two types of Teff cereals, the most frequently used types are White Teff and Red Teff. Mixing the flours of these Teff with other cereals helps to produce Injera with different quality levels. The first quality Injera is made from white Teff only and its selling price was ETB 6 per unit at the time of data collection. The second quality Injera is produced from the mix of Red Teff, Maize and Sorghum and its unit selling price was ETB 3. However, the suppliers do not hold more than one variety of Injera at a time.
Major Social Opportunities
Women trading Injera on the street at Nekemte town have good socioeconomic opportunities to use up. The first social opportunities of women engaged on trading Injera is the interest to continue in the engagement. The study result shows that (38; 76%) of the women have interest to continue in the engagement as their future career if a certain improvement is made to the career.
If a certain reform is made to the career, (40; 80%) of women currently engaged on trading Injera have full interest to continue with the career and (45; 90%) of the women were believe it as the best way of a career. The possible required reforms to improve the current status of the engagement are giving close support; offering on job and entrepreneurship training; creating public awareness; electrifying the production processes; enterprising the marketing system; and creating regular customers.
The existence of indigenous knowledge and skills with the women is the second major social opportunity of the engagement. All women engaged on trading Injera on the street have good native knowledge and skills of Injera preparation. They can easily exploit the existing knowledge and skills, if they can get slight close support from stakeholders. The third possible social opportunity of women engaged on the trading is the women’s interest to work in cooperative. The assessment result of the study reveals that (43; 86%) of women engaged on trading Injerahave full interest to work in cooperative if the conditions aregetting suitable. Only (7; 14%) of the women have no interest to work in collaboration with others, this may be due to lack of good awareness about the advantageous of cooperative.
Major economic opportunities
One of the existing economic opportunities within our town is existence of adequate and cheap utility facilities. Facilities related to utilities have major contribution to the development of one country’s economy and society. As compared to other areas of the region, Nekemte town is more blessed by various utilities like electric town, water, road and transportations. The matter here is not the inadequacy of these utilities rather their wise utilization. If it is possible to cooperate and support these women engaged on trading Injera in order to modernize and enterprise the engagement, there is no big challenge with the existence of necessary utility facilities.
The second major economic opportunity of women engaged on trading Injera is the availability of necessary cereal grains for the production of Injera. Nekemte town and its surrounding areas are rich in cereal grains useful for Injera production such as Teff (White & Red), Maize, Sorghums, etc. All necessary inputs required to produce Injera can easily be obtained from Nekemte town and its surroundings. It requires only exploiting and using them in a scientific manner.
The existence of high demand for Injera consumption in the town and abroad is the third alternative economic opportunity for Injera market. There is a big market share of Injera inside and outside of the town. This is because of the existence of high population domiciling in the town and the town is becoming a center for various sectors like universities, colleges, industrial parks, hospitals, hotels, churches, etc. The market share of Injera is not limited only to the town rather it can be expanded to the abroad market. On the other hand, the Ethiopian airlines port under construction nearby Nekemte town brings another opportunity to reach the abroad demand for Injera consumption.
The other major economic opportunities of women engaged on trading Injera is the existence of high willingness to take entrepreneurship related training that may improve their awareness and skills. All women (50; 100%) currently engaged on Injera trading and included in this study have full willingness to take entrepreneurship related training in order to fill the existing knowledge gap and improve their future plan and living standard. They have also an interest to take food preparation related training to advance their indigenous knowledge and skills of Injera preparation.