Soaring food prices are making holes into the wallets of consumers but throwing a golden opportunity to poor farmers in Asia, including India, to ramp up production and increase profits, a report by think tank International Food Policy Research Institute has said. "The years of falling food prices were good for consumers, but not so good for farmers. Now, while consumers in urban areas cannot be expected to welcome soaring food prices, the higher prices should theoretically reward farmers with greater profits and better livelihoods," said IFPRI report titled 'What goes down must come up: Global food prices reach new heights'. While the real food prices declined by 75% in the three decades between 1974 and 2005, in the three years since 2005 they have risen by 75%, it said, adding that the price hikes have affected nearly every food commodity. Prices of wheat, butter and milk have tripled since 2000, and those of maize, rice and poultry have nearly doubled. The food price index of UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) rose by nearly 40% in 2007 and prices in 2008 are higher than they have been in decades, the report said. It said the government should help farmers take advantage of higher food prices to increase productivity and thereby production and incomes to improve their living standards. However, it must also ensure that poor consumers who are already living on the edge are not pushed into destitution. Achieving the balancing act between helping farmers and consumers would 'not be easy to accomplish by governments across the world,' it said. In this regard, the report quoted FAO's Daniel Gustafson as saying that while high prices are good for farmers, how it will impact them is "more complex" to ascertain. Gustafson had said there was evidence that certain countries would significantly raise agricultural production. "We could see some significant increases in Indian cereal production," the FAO official said.Citing Indian example, he said the price rise is quite dramatic. There are many parts of India where even if the local rise in prices don't match international ones; there could still be a big jump. So, if high prices prevail, which they probably will, we could see some of these people returning to what now may be a better option.