the food and agriculture organization foodprice index rose to a record high in february topping the previous alltime high set in june following unexpected shortfalls in major cereals owing to bad weather in food riots and protests threatened governments as well as social stability in africa asia the middle east and latin america and the caribbean massive public protests in response to higher food prices erupted in very diverse countries such as burkina faso cameroon egypt guinea haiti indonesia mauritania mexico morocco nepal peru senegal uzbekistan and yemen baker food and agriculture organization of the united nations international fund for agricultural development and world food programme the number of people in need of emergency food aid in lowincome fooddeficit countries also increased according to the famine early warning systems network of the united states agency for international development an estimated million people in niger were likely to be highly or extremely food insecure in and an additional million people were at risk of moderate food insecurity altogether about per cent of the population would face food shortages