Burkina Faso has harvested 4 million tons of cereals during the 2017/2018 crop year, a drop of 11% compared to 2016/2017, a balance sheet published by the government showed.
The sharp drop in production for crops such as rice and wheat is mainly due to drought, armyworm attacks and grain-eating attacks, according to Ecofin news agency.
The government said the underperformance has widened a cereal deficit of 477,448 tons and is expected to worsen the country’s food situation in the coming months.
Jihadist uprising in northern Burkina Faso has also plunged the region into a humanitarian crisis.
Much of West Africa’s Sahel, a semi-arid belt below the Sahara, is facing its worst hunger in years after erratic rains caused little vegetation to grow.
In Burkina Faso alone, more than 2.6 million people are expected to suffer from food shortage in the period from June to August.
About one person in ten already suffers acute malnutrition in the north, government statistics show.
Up to 6.8 million people across the Sahel could need food aid by August, i.e. a 60 percent increase from the number estimated late last year, the United Nations said.