High income | Cereal production (metric tons)
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. Development relevance: The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimates that cereals supply 51 percent of Calories and 47 percent of protein in the average diet. The total annual cereal production globally is about 2,500 million tons. FAO estimates that maize (corn), wheat and rice together account for more than three-fourths of all grain production worldwide. In developed countries, cereal crops are universally machine-harvested, typically using a combine harvester, which cuts, threshes, and winnows the grain during a single pass across the field. In many industrialized countries, particularly in the United States and Canada, farmers commonly deliver their newly harvested grain to a grain elevator or a storage facility that consolidates the crops of many farmers. In developing countries, a variety of harvesting methods are used in cereal cultivation, depending on the cost of labor, from small combines to hand tools such as the scythe or cradle. Crop production systems have evolved rapidly over the past century and have resulted in significantly increased crop yields, but have also created undesirable environmental side-effects such as soil degradation and erosion, pollution from chemical fertilizers and agrochemicals and a loss of bio-diversity. Factors such as the green revolution, has led to impressive progress in increasing cereals yields over the last few decades. This progress, however, is not equal across all regions. Continued progress depends on maintaining agricultural research and education. The cultivation of cereals varies widely in different countries and depends partly upon the development of the economy. Production depends on the nature of the soil, the amount of rainfall, irrigation, quality of seeds, and the techniques applied to promote growth. Limitations and exceptions: Data on cereal production may be affected by a variety of reporting and timing differences. Millet and sorghum, which are grown as feed for livestock and poultry in Europe and North America, are used as food in Africa, Asia, and countries of the former Soviet Union. So some cereal crops are excluded from the data for some countries and included elsewhere, depending on their use. The data are collected by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations through annual questionnaires and 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. For example, permanent pastures are quite different in nature and intensity in African countries and dry Middle Eastern countries. The data collected from official national sources. Statistical concept and methodology: A cereal is a grass cultivated for the edible components of their grain, composed of the endosperm, germ, and bran. Cereal grains are grown in greater quantities and provide more food energy worldwide than any other type of crop; cereal crops therefore can also be called staple crops. Cereals production data 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. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) allocates production data to the calendar year in which the bulk of the harvest took place. Most of a crop harvested near the end of a year will be used in the following year.
Publisher
The World Bank
Origin
High income
Records
63
Source
High income | Cereal production (metric tons)
1960
346400451 1961
370468891 1962
386746501 1963
376002110 1964
405800875 1965
418337235 1966
445449379 1967
457451904 1968
457726878 1969
417470966 1970
506238259 1971
494590135 1972
512513541 1973
484185990 1974
524696512 1975
537939933 1976
551987000 1977
593442612 1978
599578785 1979
576372851 1980
643480009 1981
658956478 1982
535848354 1983
683520329 1984
702798550 1985
672901805 1986
624844860 1987
547119085 1988
642546302 1989
674925489 1990
651208808 1991
688428009.03 1992
611979596.64 1993
711554929.83 1994
629161143.9 1995
731283946.58 1996
743879340.96 1997
748589463.6 1998
727561970.23 1999
738074515.79 2000
718537250.79 2001
690831355.01 2002
697220330.66 2003
837635671.81 2004
771260570.88 2005
728161366.83 2006
775059895.24 2007
832480830.49 2008
831278912.83 2009
790400883.09 2010
793953989.27 2011
762769943.37 2012
869667104.84 2013
891208094.43 2014
866490921.99 2015
924624117.16 2016
881879519.84 2017
847941000.67 2018
857215372.32 2019
851919110.93 2020
890406470.66 2021
2022
High income | Cereal production (metric tons)
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. Development relevance: The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimates that cereals supply 51 percent of Calories and 47 percent of protein in the average diet. The total annual cereal production globally is about 2,500 million tons. FAO estimates that maize (corn), wheat and rice together account for more than three-fourths of all grain production worldwide. In developed countries, cereal crops are universally machine-harvested, typically using a combine harvester, which cuts, threshes, and winnows the grain during a single pass across the field. In many industrialized countries, particularly in the United States and Canada, farmers commonly deliver their newly harvested grain to a grain elevator or a storage facility that consolidates the crops of many farmers. In developing countries, a variety of harvesting methods are used in cereal cultivation, depending on the cost of labor, from small combines to hand tools such as the scythe or cradle. Crop production systems have evolved rapidly over the past century and have resulted in significantly increased crop yields, but have also created undesirable environmental side-effects such as soil degradation and erosion, pollution from chemical fertilizers and agrochemicals and a loss of bio-diversity. Factors such as the green revolution, has led to impressive progress in increasing cereals yields over the last few decades. This progress, however, is not equal across all regions. Continued progress depends on maintaining agricultural research and education. The cultivation of cereals varies widely in different countries and depends partly upon the development of the economy. Production depends on the nature of the soil, the amount of rainfall, irrigation, quality of seeds, and the techniques applied to promote growth. Limitations and exceptions: Data on cereal production may be affected by a variety of reporting and timing differences. Millet and sorghum, which are grown as feed for livestock and poultry in Europe and North America, are used as food in Africa, Asia, and countries of the former Soviet Union. So some cereal crops are excluded from the data for some countries and included elsewhere, depending on their use. The data are collected by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations through annual questionnaires and 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. For example, permanent pastures are quite different in nature and intensity in African countries and dry Middle Eastern countries. The data collected from official national sources. Statistical concept and methodology: A cereal is a grass cultivated for the edible components of their grain, composed of the endosperm, germ, and bran. Cereal grains are grown in greater quantities and provide more food energy worldwide than any other type of crop; cereal crops therefore can also be called staple crops. Cereals production data 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. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) allocates production data to the calendar year in which the bulk of the harvest took place. Most of a crop harvested near the end of a year will be used in the following year.
Publisher
The World Bank
Origin
High income
Records
63
Source