Reference Date: 04-September-2025

Crop production in 2025 continued to be affected by conflict and climate shocks

In the unimodal rainfall northern areas, planting of 2025 cereal crops, including millet and sorghum, is ongoing and harvesting of early planted crops is expected to begin in late October. Latest weather forecasts point to below‑average precipitation amounts in September, with likely negative effects on yields. In bimodal central and southern areas, harvesting of the 2025 main maize crops started in early August. In these areas, heavy rains in August increased the risk of flooding, with possible damage to standing maize crops. Ongoing conflicts in Northwest and Southwest regions are expected to continue between October and December affecting agricultural activities and limiting farmers’ access to crop growing areas and inputs, with an overall negative impact on the 2025 crop production.

Prices of locally produced maize decreased year‑on‑year in June 2025

According to the National Institute of Statistics (INS) , the inflation rate declined from 6.3 percent in 2024 to 4.3 percent in 2025, driven by monetary tightening implemented by the Bank of Central African States (BEAC). The price of locally produced maize decreased by nearly half year‑on‑year in June 2025, reflecting the impact of government's enforcement of the maize export ban that has increased domestic availability.

Over 2.6 million people estimated to be severely food insecure in 2025

According to the latest Cadre Harmonisé (CH) analysis conducted in March 2025, about 2.6 million people (10 percent of the analysed population) were estimated to face severe acute food insecurity (CH Phase 3 [Crisis] and above) during the June to August 2025 period, including over 307 000 people in CH Phase 4 (Emergency). This marks a slight deterioration compared to the same period in 2024, when about 2.5 million people were estimated to need humanitarian assistance. Conflict remains the primary driver of acute food insecurity, particularly in the Far North, Northwest and Southwest regions, while flooding caused significant loss of livelihoods by destroying crops, food stocks, and causing livestock and population displacement in the Far North region.

Disclaimer: The designations employed and the presentation of material in this information product do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of FAO concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries.

This brief was prepared using the following data/tools:
FAO/GIEWS Country Cereal Balance Sheet (CCBS) https://www.fao.org/giews/data-tools/en/ .

FAO/GIEWS Food Price Monitoring and Analysis (FPMA) Tool https://fpma.fao.org/ .

FAO/GIEWS Earth Observation for Crop Monitoring https://www.fao.org/giews/earthobservation/ .

Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) https://www.ipcinfo.org/ .