Throughout Africa, the staple crops are cereals maize in particular. Almost all agriculture is rain-fed, although irrigation is important in some regions.
Cash crops are important in every country but vary in their distribution and profitability.
Coffee, tea, groundnuts, cocoa, tobacco, and palm oil are grown as cash crops. Relying on grass and browse, pastoralism is particularly sensitive to long periods of drought when grazing resources are depleted by livestock and not renewed. The regions of Africa have distinct characteristics. North Africa and the Indian Ocean islands rely on irrigated agriculture. In west Africa, the gradient of climates from the Sahara to the humid coast determines the potential for agriculture.