Both a rising global population and a sharp decline in food crop production in favour of a sharp rise in biofuel crops helped cause a sharp rise in basic food stock prices."Biofuels major cause of global food riots", Kazinform (Kazakhstan National Information Agency), 11 April 2008 Ethiopia also saw a drought threaten its already frail farm lands in 2007. Cocoa was also affected by a bad crop in 2008, due to disease and unusually heavy rain in parts of West Africa.
