Northern Ireland is set to miss out on Britain’s gene-edited crops revolution because of the Brexit treaty that created the Irish Sea border.

While the rest of the UK plans to use its new Brexit freedoms to benefit from cheaper and more resilient harvests, the Northern Ireland Protocol effectively bans gene-edited crops.

Edwin Poots, the Northern Ireland agriculture minister and former DUP leader, said: “This issue once again further highlights the unworkable nature of the Protocol for the agri-food sector.”

Scotland will be “left behind” if Nicola Sturgeon continues to reject groundbreaking gene editing technology for crops, a leading scientist has warned.

Prof Joyce Tait, a founding director of the Innogen Institute at the University of Edinburgh, called on the SNP to drop its opposition to new scientific techniques she said were completely safe and could help combat climate change.

A leading crop scientist has emphasised the importance of education, transparency and social dialogue in achieving widespread acceptance and trust of gene editing techniques in agriculture.

However, in the week the UK Government introduced new legislation to speed up the development of gene-edited crops, Dr Craig Simpson – a plant molecular biologist and experimental scientist at the James Hutton Institute – pointed out the technique was not a panacea, and in some cases conventional breeding or GM would be the best way of transferring genes.

Speaking to a meeting of the Scottish Society for Crop Research (SSCR) at Invergowrie, Dr Simpson said: “It will not replace good farming practice and land management. We will need to use everything we’ve got.”

At the height of the anti-GM movement, in 1999, the then head of Greenpeace UK, Peter Melchett, was charged with theft and criminal damage after scything down a field of genetically modified maize. In a decisive victory for the anti-GM movement, Lord Melchett and 27 fellow activists were acquitted by a jury in what many took as a measure of the profound negative public sentiment towards GM technology.

More than 20 years on, as the government proposes relaxing regulations on gene-edited products, experts say the public view on the technology has, if not entirely warmed, at least softened. “I think most people now have what I call the Catherine Tait view: ‘Am I bovvered?’,” said Prof Jonathan Jones of the Sainsbury Laboratory, a plant research institute based in Norfolk.

The Scottish Government has revealed it has no intention of instantly jumping on the offer to join in with the high profile precision breeding bill which began its journey through Westminster yesterday.

Following a written request from Defra Secretary, George Eustice made to the SNP/Green administration at Holyrood to join with the UK Government’s plans to take forward the legislation which would bring the commercial development of gene edited crops and livestock a step closer, the Scottish Government said it had noted the intention, but added:

“The UK Government’s invitation to participate in the Bill comes without them having shared the content with us, and we will therefore need to scrutinise it carefully to consider the implications for Scotland.”

The government introduces a bill to Parliament on Wednesday paving the way for genetically edited plants and animals to be grown and raised for food in England.

The proposed new legislation would relax regulations for gene-edited, not genetically modified (GM) products and would at first apply only to plants.

The technology is currently not used because of rules set by the European Union. But Brexit has given the UK the ability to set its own rules.

George Eustice, UK cabinet secretary for the environment, food and rural affairs, has written to First Minister Nicola Sturgeon and Scottish rural affairs secretary Mairi Gougeon, highlighting the benefits of gene-editing techniques which can alter an organism’s genetic make-up to delete negative traits and strengthen useful characteristics.

The UK government said the technology could help improve food security, producing crops that are more nutritious, climate-proof or require lower pesticides and fertilisers that damage wildlife, and livestock that is resistant to disease or needs fewer antibiotics.

Tomatoes that boost the body's vitamin D could be among the first gene-edited crops allowed on sale in England. Researchers in Norwich created the plants by turning off a specific molecule in their genetic code.

A bill will be introduced on Wednesday to allow commercial growing of gene-edited crops in England. The technique is currently not used for food production in the UK because of rules set by the EU but Brexit has enabled the UK to set its own rules.

SNP and Green ministers have been accused of putting their “constitutional obsession” ahead of Scotland’s food security.

The attack on the Scottish Government comes as ministers south of the border are set to table legislation tomorrow which would allow farmers to plant crops that have been edited to be more resistant to disease or need less water or fertiliser.

While the Genetic Technology (Precision Breeding) Bill was first touted in the wake of Brexit, the UK Government is speeding up the process over fears about the impact of Russian blockades preventing the export of wheat from Ukraine.

The production of gene-edited crops is to be sped up to help guarantee British food supplies in the wake of the conflict in Ukraine. Russian blockades are preventing the export of key goods such as wheat from the country, leading to rising food prices and shortages globally.

Amid concern over the UK's food self-sufficiency, the Government will this week introduce a Bill which will allow farms to grow more crops by planting variants that have been edited to be more resistant to disease or need less water or fertiliser.

Although plans for the Bill have been in place since Brexit, a government source said it had taken on added importance in the wake of Ukraine. Asked about the impact of the conflict on the plans, the source said: “It’s always been quite prominent as a big Brexit benefit. But also yes - it could be good news for food security in terms of developing crops that are more resistant to disease.”

Supermarket shoppers will be able to buy food produced using genetically-edited ingredients from as early as next year, the Environment Secretary has predicted. The Government is due to present a ground-breaking bill next week that will pave the way for crops to be produced using precision genetic editing techniques that will make them naturally more resilient and require less pesticides.

Speaking exclusively to i, George Eustice said the Genetic Technology (Precision Breeding) Bill will be passed into law this year, potentially enabling the first GE foods to be available by 2023. Mr Eustice said some produce which is already available in other parts of the world, could be put forward for assessment for market authorisation in England soon after the legislation is passed. While the regulations will be limited to England, the produce is likely to be available UK-wide.

Modern "smart" farm machinery is vulnerable to malicious hackers, leaving global supply chains exposed to risk, experts are warning. It is feared hackers could exploit flaws in agricultural hardware used to plant and harvest crops.

Agricultural manufacturing giant John Deere says it is now working to fix any weak spots in its software. A recent University of Cambridge report said automatic crop sprayers, drones and robotic harvesters could be hacked.