Burkina Faso faces a food crisis as a result of poor rainfall prior to the latest harvest, the impoverished west African nation's prime minister warned Thursday.

"The government is aware of the looming threat of a food crisis in our country," Luc Adolphe Tiao told parliament in his annual state of the nation address.

He said that poor and delayed rainfall impacted on the entire growing season and warned that the current state of the crops portended a below par harvest.

Tiao said the price of maize and other staples was already rising and urged his fellow citizens to show solidarity because the government alone might not be able to stem the crisis.