The FAO/GIEWS Country Cereal Balance System (CCBS) is a database of annual supply and utilization balances for main cereals, covering all countries of the world. It has been maintained by FAO/GIEWS since 1980 and is updated on a continual basis. This statistical report, which is a subset of CCBS data, presents the current-year cereal supply and demand balances for all sub-Saharan African countries, highlighting cereal import and food aid requirements...

This book offers an in-depth analyses of value chain policies, past and present in West Africa. The book contains a large number of in-depth case studies of food value chains in particular countries, including traditional export commodities (cocoa, cotton), high value exports (mangoes, horticulture) and the most important staple food value chains (oil palm, rice, maize, sorghum and millet and cassava) in the region. It also contains a large number...

The publication discusses the characteristics of smallholder producers in food markets and the determinants of and constraints to their participation in food markets and food value chains. Upon this, the publication introduces the market arrangements and mechanisms necessary to facilitate smallholders’ participation. These solutions require key responsibility of the government as well as important roles of other market players and the private sector.

World cereal production is forecast to increase by about 7 percent in 2013, helping to replenish global inventories and raise expectations for more stable markets in 2013/14. International prices of wheat declined slightly in June with the onset of the 2013 harvests in the Northern Hemisphere. By contrast, maize prices increased, supported by continued tight global supplies. Export prices of rice showed mixed trends. Cereal imports of LIFDCs for 2013/14 are...

Seasonal rainfall in 2012/13 was better than in any of the previous five years, especially in the northern cereal-producing governorates. Relatively less area was planted to cereals, compared to the last ten years. Contributing factors include high costs of production, reduced input availability including labour, prevailing violence, related damage to farm equipment, and abandoned land. The area under irrigated cereal production also declined significantly owing to power cuts, and damage...

The FAO/GIEWS Country Cereal Balance System (CCBS) is a database of annual supply and utilization balances for main cereals, covering all countries of the world. It has been maintained by FAO/GIEWS since 1980 and is updated on a continual basis. This statistical report, which is a subset of CCBS data, presents the current-year cereal supply and demand balances for all sub-Saharan African countries, highlighting cereal import and food aid requirements...

Food commodity markets are set to be more balanced in 2013/14, in particular cereals. The global food import bill is forecast to reach USD 1.09 trillion in 2013, 13 percent below the record of 2011 but close to the 2012 estimate, as higher bills for fish and livestock products are anticipated to offset lower expenditures on most other commodities, especially sugar.

FAO’s first forecast for world wheat production in 2013 stands at 690 million tonnes, about 28 million tonnes up from 2012 and the second largest crop on record. The increase is expected mostly in Europe, driven by an expansion in area in response to high prices, and in some countries due to an expected recovery in yields from last year’s below-average levels. The international cereal prices in recent months have...