A rich diversity of secondary food crops, a huge base of rural workers and good rainfall mean India is able to raise production quickly with small investments, allowing it to export a bigger surplus to world markets, he said on Monday.

"Today we have a great opportunity to produce for ourselves and for others," M S Swaminathan, father of the late 1960s Green Revolution that helped reverse growing gloom about world food supplies, said in an interview.

But he said that public policy was a crucial ingredient in realising India's potential as a world exporter, and that he was dissatisfied with the government's pace of reform so far.

At the moment India is coming under pressure for worsening the world's food fears by banning exports of rice, a move that helped trigger a near threefold rise in global prices.

On Sunday US President George W Bush said India was partly responsible for rising global food prices, provoking a backlash from Indian politicians, who retorted that the US policy of promoting corn-based ethanol in motor fuel supplies has had bigger impact on world food prices.

Both India and China are eating more protein-rich foods like beef, which requires more grain as feed, Swaminathan said.

He said India could limit the impact on world markets by encouraging more people to eat long-neglected local grains like millets, a cereal rich in protein.

MORE MOUTHS TO FEED

India, which turned self-sufficient in food grains after its Green Revolution, was forced to import wheat in the last two years and banned non-basmati rice exports in October 2007 to ensure supplies in domestic markets.

Rising population, expanding economies coupled with changing food habits have fuelled demand for food in Asia, leading to a surge in global prices of wheat and rice.

Stung by rising prices, India initiated a clutch of measures like abolishing import duty on crude palm oil and banning export of edible oils to rein in inflation which has soared to a 3-½ years high.

The government now believes estimates of record wheat and rice output in the crop year to June 2008 will help ease inflation.

Swaminathan shares government's optimism. "Public policy is now slowly evolving. We can increase immediately productivity by at least 50 per cent through an integrated package of technology, services and public policies," he said.