But any decision on this would be taken keeping in mind the interests of local farmers, Sharad Pawar told an international oilseeds conference.

The country of more than one billion people, which has the world's fourth-largest vegetable oil and oilseeds economy, does not allow imports of GMO seeds. It also imposes a 30-percent duty on non-GMO seeds, which traders say is too high and not viable.

"In order to overcome the shortage of oilseeds and edible oils, there is a need to encourage imports of high oil content oilseeds and to import genetically modified oilseeds, while protecting the interests of Indian farmers," Pawar said.

The domestic oilseed crushing industry often faces a shortage of oilseeds because of low domestic production.

India imports some 40 per cent of its annual needs of 11 million tonnes of edible oil. It imported 4.4 million tonnes of edible oil, mainly palm oil and soft oils, in the 2003/04 (November-October) oil year.