Indian farmers, who grow cotton on an average 9.06 million hectares, produced 28 million bales last year.

"In 2007, Bt cotton area went up to 6.2 million hectares from 3.2 million hectares in 2006," Clive James, chairman of the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications, told a news conference.

The organisation is a non-profit research body that advocates large-scale use and application of genetically modified crops.

"Rapid strides that India has made in cotton production since the country embraced Bt cotton and the fact that it has overtaken the US speak volumes about the technology," he said.

India allowed commercial cultivation of bacillus thuringiensis or Bt cotton in 2002, leading to vehement protests from social activists who say genetically modified crops are a health hazard, spoil soil texture and harm the environment.

Government officials say India will increasingly turn to laboratories to secure food supplies as the country struggles to feed more than one billion people.

A rapidly expanding economy and increasing population have fueled food consumption, while new industrial units and rapid migration to cities are turning farm land for other use.

"Self-sufficiency in food is crucial and the only way to ensure that is to adopt the GM technology. There cannot be two views on it," Mangla Rai, secretary of the government's Department of Agriculture Research and Education, said in September.

In October, India approved the first large-scale field trials of a genetically modified food crop.

A new hybrid variety of the popular brinjal vegetable, which promises better yields with less intensive use of pesticide, is being tested at various sites.

In 2007, area under bio-engineered crops rose to 114.3 million hectares in 23 countries, up 12 percent or 12.3 million hectares from 2006, James said.