A worldwide food crisis that sent prices of wheat, rice and corn to a record high and sparked riots from Haiti to Ivory Coast may be over after farmers boosted plantations, a top official in the food ministry said.

"I don't think there's a crisis now," said T Nanda Kumar, the country's food secretary, who is responsible for formulating food security policy in the world's second-most populous nation. "Food will be available." Farmers from Australia to China increased sowings to benefit from higher prices, helping stockpiles gain from 30-year lows. An end to the shortage may help countries including India and Egypt to ease trade barriers and cool inflation. Soaring prices increased the number of hungry people by 50 million last year, according to the United Nations. "Expectations have risen about bigger harvests," Parshuram Ray, director at the Center for Environment and Food Security, a New Delhi-based research company, said by phone. Sri Lanka's central bank said on Wednesday that declining fuel and food costs will ease the second-fastest inflation rate in Asia. Consumer prices in capital Colombo slowed in July for the first time in seven months. China's inflation cooled last month to the weakest pace in 10 months. Record soybean crops in China and India, an almost double wheat production in Australia and bigger rice harvests in Thailand and Vietnam have eased shortfalls this year.

"The global production outlook for wheat and soybeans is very good, while rice is still expensive," Kumar said in New Delhi. "Rice is softening, but I don't think it has softened adequately." Rice more than doubled in the past three years as China, Egypt, India and Vietnam curbed exports. Grain prices will remain higher than the average of the past five years even as production improves, Kumar said. Commodity prices slumped since July 3 as the dollar gained 6.8% and crude oil fell 22% from its record reducing the attraction of bio-fuels made from grains and sugar cane.