[7] Teff production is limited to certain middle elevations with adequate rainfall and is a low-yield crop,[8] so it is relatively expensive for the average farming household.

Many farmers in the Ethiopian highlands grow their own subsistence grains, so wheat, barley, corn, or rice flour are sometimes used to replace the teff content.

Teff seeds are graded according to color, used to make different kinds of injera: nech (white), key or quey (red), and sergegna (mixed).

[8] When teff is not available, injera is made by fermenting a variety of different grains, including barley, millet, and sorghum.

[9] Teff, however, is the preferred grain for making injera, primarily because of its sensory attributes (color, smell, taste).

The aerobic microbial flora of ersho contains spores of Bacillus species (unable to grow at the low pH of 3.5) and several yeasts (in order of abundance): Candida milleri, Rhodotorula mucilaginosa, Kluyveromyces marxianus, Pichia naganishii and Debaromyces hansenii.

In terms of shape, injera compares to the French crêpe and the Indian dosa as a flatbread cooked in a circle and used as a base for other foods.

Traditional clay stoves can be inefficient in that they consume large amounts of firewood and produce a lot of smoke, creating household pollution and making them dangerous to use around children.

[11] In 2003, an Eritrean research group designed a stove for cooking injera and other foods that uses more easily available fuel, such as twigs instead of large branches, crop residues and dung, locally called kubet.

[12] Many women in urban areas—especially those living outside Ethiopia and Eritrea—now use electric injera stoves, which are topped with a large metal plate, or simply non-stick frying pans.

Injera became more common in the United States during a spike in Ethiopian immigration in the 1980s and 1990s,[17] largely because of the Refugee Act passed in 1980.