India, April 2 -- Control over digital genetic data is emerging as a key battleground in global food and agriculture governance

Global South countries are pushing back against "open access" rules, citing risks of digital biopiracy

India, Brazil and African nations are advocating new frameworks linking access to benefit-sharing

Technologies such as blockchain are being explored to track genetic resources and ensure transparency

Stalled treaty negotiations and shifting alliances could reshape global rules on seeds, data and sovereignty

For millennia, the "source code" of human survival was written in the soil - held in the physical seeds exchanged by farmers across the Eastern Ghats, the Andes and the African savannah. Today, that code...