Seed is a fundamental input for crop production, improving agricultural productivity and ensuring food security. It can re-establish the livelihoods of farmers affected by disasters and return them to a life in dignity and financial stability. Access to high-quality, improved seed also facilitates food diversification and prevention of genetic erosion in rural agriculture.
There are many barriers to food security. Pest infestations, pervasiveness of fake or sub-standard seed, and climate-related changes that cause droughts and other extreme weather are major culprits.  These challenges are further exacerbated when national legislation and regulatory systems prevent the movement of key agricultural inputs, like seed, to help nations recover. Historically, SADC’s seed markets have been segregated, small and difficult to access. Without regional harmonization of seed legislation, a new variety must go through lengthy variety testing and release procedures before that seed can be marketed in each country—and it may only be marketed in that country. This ultimately denies farmers’ access to new seed varieties.  Additionally, variations between countries in national standards for seed certification and quality control, as well as quarantine and phytosanitary measures for seed, complicate trading of seed between countries, which becomes detrimental during emergency food crises and discourages further investment by the private sector.
The main goal of regional seed policy harmonization is to facilitate the integration of smaller, more isolated markets into one larger market. In the Southern African Development Community (SADC), this has meant developing a set of guidelines for seed production and export that all 16 SADC Member States can agree on.  This regional set of seed guidelines is known as the SADC Harmonized Seed Regulatory System (HSRS).  The SADC HSRS is not about enacting uniform seed legislation in each SADC country, but instead, it is about developing a common legal culture on seed regulation that is consistent with the commonly agreed standards, rules and procedures.