Agricultural growth and diversity is deemed key to national and household level food security in Africa. We set out to estimate the growth in area, productivity, production, commercial imports of maize, wheat and paddy in Ethiopia and Malawi before and after adopting Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme in 2003. Exponential compound growth rates showed a significant and highest increase in area under wheat and paddy compared to area under maize, though with high instability in area under wheat and paddy. The productivity of maize registered significant growth with highest rates in Ethiopia though with high fluctuations compared to wheat and paddy. Similarly, the production of maize, wheat and paddy showed significant positive growth for both the countries, but higher coefficient of variations ranging from 32 to 48 percent. There is decrement in imports of maize and rice in Malawi, while Ethiopia registered a highly significant increase in wheat imports. There was decline in exports of maize in Ethiopia but Malawi registered a high and significant growth in maize exports. Although production growth rates for maize, wheat and paddy are higher after 2003 than before, these rates are far below 6 percent annual target under the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme. However, both countries are food-self sufficient up to 2011 and have significantly reduced the cereal imports