Genetically modified (GM) potatoes are set to be grown for the first time in Ireland, after Environmental Protection Agency Ireland (EPA) has given its approval to carry out trials.
The plants will be modified to be resistant to Late blight - a fungal disease which can lead to the death of plant tissues.
Over the years, more aggressive strains of blight have evolved, forcing farmers to use powerful sprays to eliminate the fungus, and according to state agricultural research agency, Teagasc, the disease is estimated to cost farmers nearly €15m annually due to loss of crops.
The European Union (EU) has been trialling GM potato crops at several sites in UK, Belgium and the Netherlands, and now with Ireland giving clearance, a trial will be conducted to evaluate if GM potato crops will be able to resist Late blight with a less powerful fungal spray, compared to the other varieties.
Teagasc will conduct the trials over a period of four years in a 2ha area at its headquarters in Oak Park, Co Carlow.
The trials will employ cisgenic technology to modify the potatoes, where a resistance gene will be extracted from Solanum venturii, a wild potato from South America. The experiments will be regularly monitored, and the EPA will make the information available to public.
Teagasc scientists said that the cisgenic technology is similar to conventional breeding, compared to widely used transgenic modification, where a gene from an entirely difference specie is incorporated.
Teagasc crop research head John Spink told the BBC News that the trial is being carried out in Ireland because the environment in the country is different from other parts of the EU.
The trial is being conducted not to commercialise potatoes, but to analyse the effect on the environment and the pathogen itself, Spink added.
However, campaigners including The Irish Organic Farmers and Growers Association (IOFGA) have opposed the trials stating that cisgenic technology is not benign and that the move would risk Ireland's status as a GM-free nation.
This will mark the first GM trial in Ireland since 1996, when an attempt to grow GM sugar beets met with strong protests from the environmentalists, which led to the experiment being called off.
