Cereal production

Cereals include the most important food crops. The top three cereals in the world are maize (corn), rice and wheat. Together they represent about 90% of all cereals produced in the world.

World production of the most important cereals and pseudo-cereals in 2012 can be seen from the following table (data from the FAOSTAT website). Note that a cereal is always a crop belonging to the grasses family (Poaceae) while pseudo-cereals are used in much the same way as cereals, but they are not grasses.

Cereal name	Tons produced	Thousand tons (= million kg) produced
Maize	872,066,770	872,067
Rice, paddy	719,738,273	719,738
Wheat	670,875,110	670,875
Barley	132,886,519	132,887
Sorghum	57,004,922	57,005
Millet	29,866,016	29,866
Oats	21,062,972	21,063
Rye	14,562,055	14,562
Triticale	13,671,027	13,671
Buckwheat	2,275,005	2,275
Fonio	587,270	587
Canary seed	191,501	192
Quinoa	82,510	83

Apart from the crops mentioned in above table there are several other cereals and pseudo-cereals in the world. While unimportant at a global scale they can sometimes be very important crops in smaller regions. Other cereals and pseudo-cereals include: teff, amaranth, spelt, einkorn and emmer.

See also: Cereals and Pseudocereals