The potential impacts on the UK agricultural industry of either adopting, or not adopting, genetically modified cereals and oilseeds will be studied in research commissioned by HGCA.

The study will be carried out over the next six months and will examine the potential economic, environmental and land-use implications of adopting GM technology, "on farm and throughout the supply chain."

Although there is no clear scientific consensus on GM technology, UK Environment Minister Owen Paterson, as well as a number of other senior government figures, has pledged support for the crops in no uncertain terms.

The industry and its supporters claim that GM crops are needed to eliminate hunger and malnutrition, reduce use of chemicals and increase yields to feed a growing population. However, sceptics maintain that poverty and waste are the most significant barriers to achieving food security, and observe that in the United States, where GM crops were first grown commercially, use of agricultural chemicals is on the increase, and 'superweeds' resistant to chemicals have become a widespread problem.

Major reports on agricultural policy, including the 2008 World Bank IAASTD Report which was compiled by over 400 scientists, view GM as something of a peripheral issue, and far from central to the debate over global food security.

Nevertheless, as debate continues to rage over the place of GM in the future of European farming, a team of economists, statisticians and agricultural scientists from the University of Reading will conduct the HGCA-commissioned research; the authority claims that its study will be the first to examine the impact of GM within the context of the UK cereals and oilseeds industry. The team will publish its findings later in 2013.

Dr Vicky Foster, Senior Research and Knowledge Transfer Manager at HGCA, commented on Monday, "With limited approval of this technology in Europe there is little evidence available on what impact it could have for UK agriculture and nothing specifically for cereals and oilseeds. The topic of genetically modified food and feed continues to generate a high level of interest and debate.

"HGCA is reviewing the implications for UK growers, merchants and primary processors of adoption versus non-adoption of GM cereals and oilseeds in order to provide an evidence-based approach to the question of whether or not these technologies could be of benefit to the industry."