Overall production of wheat, oats and barley in Ireland decreased by 12.3% in 2016, the latest figures from the Central Statistics Office show.
This equated to a drop of 323,000t across the board last year; cereal production totalled 2,311,000t in 2016.
Cereals were sown in a total of 280,300ha of farmland in 2016 – a drop of 11,200ha or 3.8%, according to the CSO.
The overall cereal yield also decreased by 8.7% to 8.2t/ha last year.
Production of barley fell by 14.9% or 259,000t last year; barley yields dropped to 7.8t/ha – a fall of 8.8% on the previous year.
Meanwhile, the total area of wheat sown last year increased by 2,600ha or 4%, CSO figures show.
Despite the increase in the total area sown, both wheat production and yields fell by 7% and 10.6% respectively.
Source: CSO
Just 200ha of oats were sown in Ireland last year – a 1% drop compared to the previous year, according to the CSO.
Production of oats also decreased by 7.3% in 2016, while yields took a hit of 6.4%.
It dropped from 42.3t/ha in 2015 to 38.9t/ha in 2016; while the area under potatoes actually increased by 6.1%.
Overall, this resulted in a drop in production of potatoes of 8,000t to 352,000t.
Despite the area of oilseed rape sown in 2016 increasing by 1,000ha, a jump of 10.8%, production dropped by 14.5% or 6,000t.
Yields of the crop took a massive hit, with a decrease of 22.8% reported in 2016.
Global wheat production expected to fall in 2017
Global wheat production is expected to fall in 2017, according to the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations.
The FAO forecasts that global wheat production will amount to 744.5m tonnes, which would equate to a 1.8% drop from the record high levels seen in 2016.
But this estimate is set to remain above the last five-year average, the FAO said.
The decline would mostly reflect the projected decrease in plantings in North America, and a return to normal production levels in Australia following an exceptionally high output last season, it added.