A new wave of genetically-modified crop trials will be carried out this year after scientists successfully grew GM potatoes in the UK.

Scientists at Leeds University, who carried out the trial, are set to apply for a licence to plant more modified potatoes following similar tests in 2009.

Dr Peter Unwin, of the university’s Faculty of Biological Sciences, said a second variety of nematode-resistant potatoes could also be trialled in the spring if scientists were given the go-ahead.

A few hundred potatoes would be planted at a secure site in Tadcaster, North Yorkshire.

“It is disappointing that we have to secure things behind fences and have security patrols,” said Dr Urwin told the Daily Telegraph.

“But, as a country, if we are to go forward in food security and agriculture then we have to look at these things.”

Meanwhile the National Institute of Agricultural Botany (NIAB) has also announced plans to plant GM crops on a demonstration farm.

Innovation Farm in Cambridgeshire will begin operating this year and is expected to include new breeds of wheat and potatoes.

NIAB’s Lydia Smith said the trial would be used to improve understanding of plant breeding among farmers, the media and the public.

The drive towards developing GM comes after government chief scientist John Beddington said the UK should carry out more research into modified crops to find ways to produce more food with less land.

Speaking at the Oxford Farming Conference, Prof Beddington said: “We need a greener revolution, improving production and efficiency through the food chain within environmental and other constraints.

“Techniques and technologies from many disciplines, ranging from biotechnology and engineering to newer fields such as nanotechnology, will be needed.”

DEFRA secretary Hilary Benn has repeatedly said he would welcome more GM trials if scientists applied to carry them out.

So far he has only licensed the one field trial in Leeds.