British scientists have developed genetically modified potatoes that are resistant to the vegetable's biggest threat - blight.
A three-year trial has shown that these potatoes can thrive despite being exposed to late onset blight.
EU approval is needed before commercial cultivation of this GM crop can take place.
The research is published in the journal Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B.
Potatoes are particularly vulnerable to late blight, a fungus-like organism that loves the damp and humid conditions that often occur during the growing season in Europe.
The speed with which this infection takes hold and the devastating impacts on the crop make it the number one threat to six million tonnes of potatoes produced in the UK each year.
Farmers have to be continuously on their guard and need to spray up to 15 times a season to protect against the disease.
As part of an EU-wide investigation into the potential for biotechnology to protect crops, scientists at the John Innes Centre and the Sainsbury Laboratory began a trial with blight-resistant potatoes in 2010.
The researchers added a gene to Desiree potatoes, from a wild South American relative, that helps the plant turn on its natural defenses to fight off blight.
The scientists involved say that the use of techniques to add extra genes was crucial in developing a plant resistant to the blight.
In 2012, the third year of the trial, all the non-GM potatoes became infected with late blight by August while the modified vegetables remained fully resistant to the end of the experiment.
There was also a difference in yield, with the GM variety producing double the amount of tubers.
The scientists say that since the potatoes are grown from tubers rather than seeds, they are sterile and the issue of GM pollen escaping into the wild does not arise.
One area the scientists cannot comment on is the taste, as they were barred from eating the GM variety. However, they do not believe there is any mechanism by which the new genes can impact the flavor.