(1) Maize
The maize production of main producing countries presents obvious fluctuations with annual variation about 5%. The peak was reached in 2009 due to the historically high maize yield and production in the United States. Then the maize production decreased ever since, and dropped to the lowest point in 2010 which was mainly caused by the severe drought in the United States and led to a significant drop in maize yield.
(2) Rice
The rice production of main producing countries shows little fluctuations with annual variation less than 1 percent. The year 2009 and 2011 fell in the production valley in recent ten years, but the production increased ever since. Due to the impact of rising price in 2008, the southeast countries enhanced the rice self-supply, and the rice production presented stable increase since 2010 which made the 2013 rice production reach to the amount before the rice crisis in 2008. 
(3) Soybean
The soybean production of main producing countries presents significant increasing trend, especially after 2009 and the largest increase showed up in 2010. In recent three years, the global soybean production is relatively stable. The global soybean area has gradually expanded with China enhanced dependence to the international market. The soybean production increased 10% compared with that in 2008. Although a number of countries have invested in soybean, some are already gradually pulling out or reducing their share of global soybean areas, such as Egypt, France, Indonesia, Mexico, the Philippines, Thailand, and Turkey.
(4) Wheat
The wheat production of main producing countries is characterized by significant variation. The wheat production generally presented decreasing trend before 2012 with annual variation less than 1%, while the production peak is reached in 2013. In recent 10 years, wheat growing area maintains stable in most of the countries, except in Argentina, South Africa and Brazil, which present steadily decreasing trend. The wheat yields have been mostly stagnating since 2000 in the major European wheat producing countries (including Russia) and Mexico.
The general trends described above point to a general and ongoing global dominance of maize, followed by rice and wheat. During 2001 to 2013, maize possesses the highest production (close to 900 million tons) as the main global crop; Rice (as paddy) and wheat still compete for the second place with each having a global production of around 700 million tons. Despite its continuing decline in importance (compared to maize and rice), wheat is bound to remain a dominant crop, mostly because of local traditions (as the basis of bread) and because it can be grown as a winter crop.
The growth rate patterns shows soybean obtain the highest growth rates, followed by maize and rice, and then by wheat. In recent five years, the global rice and soybean production present a steady increase. Although the global production of wheat and maize both show a decreasing trend in recent four years, the production of the two in 2013 have been observed a big increase. According to the latest monitoring result in January 2014, a positive trend has been observed for the wheat production in the south hemisphere.