Sub-Saharan Africa: Land under cereal production (hectares)

Key figures

What the numbers say

In 2024, Sub-Saharan Africa's land under cereal production (hectares) rose 3.4% on 2023 (from 119.19 million to 123.27 million).

Across the 30 yearly changes before that (1994 to 2023), the average change was +1.8% and a typical year strayed about 5.2% from that (the standard deviation). This year's change was 0.3 standard deviations above that average, so it was an ordinary year: it sits within the range of normal year-to-year movement.

On record, the biggest yearly rise was 14.5% in 2005 and the biggest yearly fall was 6.1% in 2004. The numbers show how large and when, not why; for the cause, look at what happened in that country in those years.

From 2015 to 2024 the straight-line trend is upward, about 1.65 million a year. A straight line explains 78% of the movement over 10 observed years.

Worked out from the yearly values above. How the checks work: standard deviation, z-scores and straight-line trends.

A straight-line projection, tested first

Extending that straight line gives about 126.2 million for 2027. We show this only because the same method, fitted on earlier years, predicted 2022 to 2024 better than "no change" would have: its average miss was 1.29 million, against 4.81 million for assuming no change. Treat it as a continuation of the recent pattern, not a forecast of events: it cannot see a recession, a policy change or a revision to the data.

See how a linear trend forecast works and the guide on forecasting without fooling yourself.

How it compares

See how every economy compares in the full ranking.

What this measures

Land under cereal production refers to harvested area, although some countries report only sown or cultivated area. Cereals include wheat, rice, maize, barley, oats, rye, millet, sorghum, buckwheat, and mixed grains. Production data on cereals relate to crops harvested for dry grain only. Cereal crops harvested for hay or harvested green for food, feed, or silage and those used for grazing are excluded.

Limitations: The data are collected by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) through annual questionnaires. They are supplemented with information from official secondary data sources. The secondary sources cover official country data from websites of national ministries, national publications and related country data reported by various international organizations. The FAO tries to impose standard definitions and reporting methods, but complete consistency across countries and over time is not possible. Thus, data on agricultural land in different climates may not be comparable.

Regional and income-group figures are computed by the World Bank as a sum.

All 64 values

Land under cereal production (hectares) in nearby economies

• Afghanistan — 2.64 million (2024)
• Algeria — 2.68 million (2024)
• Djibouti — 9 (2024)
• Egypt, Arab Rep. — 3.26 million (2024)
• Iran, Islamic Rep. — 9 million (2024)
• Iraq — 2.43 million (2024)
• Israel — 66,837 (2024)
• Jordan — 52,137 (2024)
• Kuwait — 2,484 (2024)
• Lebanon — 45,032 (2024)
• Libya

More environment data for Sub-Saharan Africa

• Population in the largest city (% of urban population) — 25.39% (2025)
• Population in urban agglomerations of more than 1 million (% of total population) — 16.33% (2025)
• Rural population — 731.42 million (2025)
• Rural population (% of total population) — 55.34% (2025)
• Urban population — 590.23 million (2025)
• Urban population (% of total population) — 44.66% (2025)
• Aquaculture production (metric tons) — 904,661 (2024)
• Capture fisheries production (metric tons) — 8.8 million (2024)
• Total fisheries production (metric tons)

Reading data like this

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Questions people ask

What is Sub-Saharan Africa's land under cereal production (hectares)?

123.27 million in 2024, according to the World Bank (World Development Indicators).

How has it changed since 1961?

It is up 160.43% from 47.34 million in 1961 (1.53% a year on average, compounded). The highest value was 123.27 million in 2024 and the lowest 47.34 million in 1961.

Source

World Bank, World Development Indicators, indicator AG.LND.CREL.HA, licensed CC BY 4.0. Original source: FAO electronic files and web site, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), uri: https://www.fao.org/faostat/en/#data/QCL, note: Item code F1717, publisher: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) Figures are fetched from the World Bank API and refreshed monthly; see the series on data.worldbank.org. The full definition and method are in the World Bank's metadata glossary. Comparisons use the same World Bank release.

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