يتميز إنتاج الحبوب في أفريقيا خلال السنوات الأخيرة بالميزات التالية: أ. ويتدهور معدل الاكتفاء الذاتي تدريجياً وتزداد حدة ندرة الحبوب. ورغم أن العديد من الدول بذلت جهودا كبيرة في تطوير إنتاج الحبوب منذ الاستقلال, بشكل عام, زيادة الحبوب لم تكن قادرة على مواكبة الزيادة في الطلب. وانخفض معدل الاكتفاء الذاتي من الحبوب من 97% من أوائل الستينيات إلى 70% من منتصف الثمانينات. وزادت واردات الحبوب بمقدار ستة أضعاف. ب. يحتل إنتاج الحبوب مكانة بارزة في الزراعة وصناعة الغرس. في الغالب, for the countries with a lower economic level, its grain production takes a more prominent position. c. Low and unstable production level. Most part of grain production is done by small farmers and their technology is backward. d. The crops have a large variety and coarse food grain takes a large proportion (about 70% or above of total grain throughput). Wheat and paddy take a smaller proportion. Teff, yam, taro, cattail millet, ragi millet, edible banana are all grown in Africa; farmers use corn and cassava as staple food. Corn has a long plantation history and a large plantation area. It is mostly concentrated in southern Africa. South Africa, Zimbabwe, Malawi are main producing countries. High lands in east Africa, Egypt and Morocco in north Africa and Ghana, Guinea, Benin in west Africa also have a large plantation area. Sorghum and millets are traditional food crops. The middle streams of Niger River and the Nile are two major sorghum producing areas. Millets are widely spread. Nigeria, Chad, Niger River are major producing countries. Wheat and barley are mainly spread in coastal countries of Mediterranean and south Africa. Paddy is concentrated in few countries like Egypt and Madagascar. In recent years, the coast of Guinea Gulf, the middle stream of Niger River, eastern area of Congo Basin have seen plenty plantation of paddy. Cassava is one of the traditional food crops; it is the staple food of tropical African villagers; it is almost spread across the whole continent, especially between N16° and S16° tropical area.