This technical note, developed by the Feed the Future Enabling Environment for Food Security project, explores the World Bank 2017 Enabling the Business of Agriculture (EBA) seed data and its relevance to the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) efforts to harmonize seed regulations (HSR).

In 2013, SADC member states agreed to cooperate in adopting a common regional framework for regulation of seed registration, certification, and quality assurance. The primary objective of regional harmonization is to address problems of small and fragmented markets, lengthy variety testing and release procedures, and complications in seed trade regulations, such as national variations in seed certification, quality control and quarantine, and phytosanitary measures. The World Bank collects country-level data on laws and regulations impacting plant breeding, release, and quality control of seed as part of its Enabling the Business of Agriculture (EBA) dataset and includes data from five of the fifteen member countries. The SADC HSR framework and EBA data are highly congruent, making the EBA an excellent monitoring mechanism to track progress toward harmonization. To learn more about how EBA could be used to support SADC HSR efforts, check out the technical brief below.