Agriculture and food minister Sharad Pawar has said the restrictions imposed on export of major foodgrain are not permanent and the government could lift the ban once the supply situation improves. "I am confident that prices will go down and in such a situation we don't want to continue with these types of restrictions," Pawar said when asked about the demand being raised by world leaders on lifting export ban. "Generally we are also not very much against that what they are saying. We have taken certain decisions where is a tremendous shortage like pulses or edible oil in India But whenever we will improve production, we don't want continue that,' he added. The government has banned the export of various foodgrains like wheat, non-basmati rice, pulses and imposed duty on export of basmati rice in a bid to check inflation that has increased to 45-month high of 8.24%. Though Pawar broadly agreed to the suggestions of the world leaders including UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon to lift the export ban, he pointed out that India had imposed the restrictions to protect the poor people in the country. "Even today quite a bit of population live below poverty line and we have to protect the interest of vulnerable section of society and for that purpose, we have to keep the availability in the open market and also with the government.' "In such situation, we have to take certain decisions but these decisions are not on permanent basis,' he added. Pawar represented India at Rome Conference, organised by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), to chalk out a strategy to deal with the soaring commodity prices. According to Pawar, ultimately everybody would have to accept the global market concept. The minister attributed the ongoing global food crisis to the decision of the developed countries to substantiate area of their wheat crop to the corn production of ethanol and high crude oil prices. "That is main problem which has ultimately created this situation', he added. Referring to the Indian experience, he said that the government has successfully managed the price level as compared to other countries. "Wheat prices internationally has gone up by 100% as against 7 to 8% in India and rice prices by140% internationally as against 17-18%. That shows that our efforts are definitely useful and beneficial for our own population', he noted. As regards use of bio-fuels, he said, they are important, but they should be produced from agriculture waste and residues and not by diverting cultivable land which is for production of food grains. "Overwhelming majority (at the conference) was of the view that agriculture waste and residues is the only alternative through which one could produce bio-fuel. By and large there was unanimity on this particular subject,' he pointed out. PTI The ultimate solution to the problem of current food prices is to improve production and productivity, he said adding, "India has taken initiative in all these areas two years back... Our food security mission is about increasing productivity.'