<p>A bibliometric analysis of food security publications in Africa reveals that research hotspots primarily focus on climate change, impacts, Sub-Saharan Africa, and agriculture. Despite there are large amount publications with first author coming from institutions located in Africa, average citation of these publications except those from Kenya are generally lower than that from the rest of the world, particularly Europe and USA. It is notable that publications may not reflect exactly the actual crop plantation realities in Africa. There is a significant mismatch between the harvested area and publication output for local commonly cultivated crops, such as sorghum, millet, cassava, groundnut, and cowpea. These crops together occupy 37.0% of Africa’s harvested area while accounting for only 10.9% of the African food security publications. In contrast, maize, wheat and rice occupy 23.2% of food security publications, closely matching their 23.4% share of harvested area. In future food security research in Africa, priorities should be given to improving research focus on local commonly cultivated crops and enlarging influences from local experts.</p>