Review of the food and agricultural situation in Africa

The rate of increase of agricultural production, and especially food production, in Africa appears to have slowed down in the last few years. For 1959/60, the latest season for which data are available, provisional estimates indicate that there was a slight fall in production from the level of the previous year. On a per caput basis, food production appears to have fallen below the prewar level for the last three years. The production statistics for basic food crops and livestock products in Africa are subject to considerable margin of error, however, so that these data can be regarded as no more than approximate indications of the trends that have probably occurred.