The effects on prices from floods last year in Pakistan and China are still being felt.

Last week, Russia extended an earlier ban on wheat exports. Russia acted after heat, drought and wildfires destroyed about a third of its wheat crop last summer. The ban was placed to make sure Russians have enough wheat. The first ban caused worldwide wheat prices climb to last year by almost fifty percent.

In Algeria, the government has reduced taxes after food riots late last year and earlier this month. Among the causes of the riots were price increases for cooking oil and sugar. Several people died in the riots, and hundreds of others were injured.

Tunisians waited outside a bakery in Tunis on Sunday as bread and milk were in short supply. An uprising last week ousted longtime president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.

Food prices are also part of economic problems to blame for the deadly riots in Tunisia.

Shenggen Fan heads the International Food Policy Research Institute from its Washington, DC, office. Mr. Fan says countries must invest in making their farmers more productive. He says the world will need to feed more hungry people with less available land, water and other resources.

And that’s the VOA Special English Agriculture Report, written by Jerilyn Watson. Our programs are online with transcripts and MP3 files at voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Steve Ember.