Bangladesh Agricultural Development Corporation
Profile
- Head
- Md Azizul Islam
- Role
- Chairman
- Annual budget
- —
- Staff
- 25451
- Established
- 1961
- Legal basis
- Originally established under the Agricultural Development Corporation Ordinance, 1961 (E.P. Ordinance No. XXXVII of 1961) as the East Pakistan Agricultural Development Corporation; renamed BADC in 1976 following a brief 1975 re-designation as Bangladesh Agricultural Inputs Supply and Services Corporation (BAISSC); current governing statute is the Bangladesh Agricultural Development Corporation Act, 2018 (Act No. XXXV of 2018), enacted by the Jatiya Sangsad and published in the Bangladesh Gazette
BADC is in an active operational and governance transition: new Chairman Md Azizul Islam took charge on 9 February 2026 and has conducted multiple field inspections (Gabtoli VHT and fertiliser warehouse, Kashimpur Horticultural Centre, Madhupur Seed Farm) to enforce transparency and service delivery; the corporation approved 2.10 lakh MT of fertilizer imports in February 2026 (DAP from MA'ADEN and OCP, TSP from GCT Tunisia, urea from KAFCO and SABIC); is executing a digital seed demand forecasting system with IRRI under the PARTNER program to shift from manual to predictive rice seed planning (BADC currently supplies 33% of national seed demand); and the November 2025 unified fertiliser dealer policy has dissolved the separate BADC-BCIC dealer channel, requiring system-wide re-registration of dealers.
Recent activity
- 2026-04-02 other Chairman Md Azizul Islam conducted field inspections at the Kashimpur Horticultural Development Centre and Madhupur Seed Production Farm in Tangail, directing staff to meet annual horticultural production targets and improve seed purity across hybrid tomato, sweet pumpkin, gourd, and wheat seed programs; also oversaw training programs at the Madhupur Training Institute and instructed adherence to PPR-2025 financial regulations. ↗
- 2026-02-21 other Newly appointed Chairman Md Azizul Islam inspected BADC's Gabtoli, Dhaka operations -- including the Vapour Heat Treatment (VHT) project, the under-construction prefabricated fertiliser warehouse, and fertiliser loading/unloading at Amin Bazar -- and directed officials to ensure transparent, timely delivery of seeds, fertiliser, and irrigation services to farmers; stressed elimination of farmer harassment at service centres. ↗↗
- 2026-02-10 procurement The Advisers Council Committee on Government Purchase approved BADC's import of 25,000 MT of Triple Super Phosphate (TSP) fertilizer under the 4th lot from Groupe Chimique Tunisien (GCT), Tunisia, at Tk 162.57 crore (US$530/tonne) via state-level agreement; separately approved construction of two BADC buffer godowns -- 10,000 MT capacity in Meherpur (Tk 40.76 crore) and 20,000 MT capacity in Thakurgaon (Tk 59.19 crore) -- to strengthen storage and distribution infrastructure. ↗↗↗
- 2026-02-09 appointment Md Azizul Islam, Additional Secretary of the Government of Bangladesh and 18th-batch BCS Administration Cadre officer (joined service January 1999), appointed Chairman of BADC by the Ministry of Agriculture; previously served as Member of the Administrative Appellate Tribunal; succeeds the prior chairman. ↗↗
- 2026-02-03 procurement Advisers Council Committee on Government Purchase approved import of 2.10 lakh MT of fertilizer (210,000 MT total) including: 40,000 MT DAP (1st lot 2026) from MA'ADEN, Saudi Arabia at Tk 323.92 crore; 40,000 MT DAP (11th lot) and 60,000 MT TSP (17th and 18th lots) from OCP Nutricrops, Morocco; 30,000 MT bagged urea from KAFCO Bangladesh; and 40,000 MT bulk granular urea from SABIC Agri-nutrients, Saudi Arabia at Tk 205.31 crore. ↗↗
- 2025-11-16 regulation Government published and brought into effect the Integrated Policy on Fertiliser Dealership and Distribution-2025 (effective 16 November 2025), eliminating the long-standing separation between BADC and BCIC dealer networks; all fertilizer dealers are now unified under government appointment with three dealers per union, annual licence renewal at Tk 1,000 (July 1-31) with security deposit raised from Tk 2,00,000 to Tk 4,00,000; sub-dealers phased out once new dealerships are formally appointed. ↗↗
- 2025-06-26 other BADC and IRRI jointly launched a digital seed demand forecasting tool at an inception workshop in Dhaka under the World Bank-funded PARTNER program (IDA Credit 7299-BD); BADC currently handles 33% of national seed supply using manual assumption-based planning; the new tool integrates farmer and dealer feedback with agro-climatic data for predictive, cloud-based rice seed supply planning; BADC Director General Md Ruhul Amin Khan presided, IRRI South Asia Seed Systems Lead Dr Swati Nayak presented the framework; Phase One covers gap analysis, system design, and prototype development over three years. ↗↗
Provenance & notes
BADC was originally established in 1961 under E.P. Ordinance No. XXXVII of 1961 as the East Pakistan Agricultural Development Corporation; renamed BAISSC in 1975 and BADC in 1976; the current governing statute is the Bangladesh Agricultural Development Corporation Act, 2018 (Act No. XXXV of 2018), confirmed by bdlaws.minlaw.gov.bd and corroborated by The Daily Star's report on the BADC Bill 2018 being tabled in the Jatiya Sangsad. Banglapedia and Wikipedia both confirm six and five operational wings respectively (slight discrepancy: Banglapedia lists Administration, Irrigation, Seed, Supply, Planning, Finance; Wikipedia lists Seed & Horticulture, Minor Irrigation, Fertilizer Management, Finance and Administration -- the Wikipedia list is more current as it reflects post-privatisation restructuring); both agree on a sanctioned staff count of 25,451. Current Chairman Md Azizul Islam confirmed appointed 9 February 2026 per New Age Bangladesh; Dhaka Tribune corroborates the subsequent Gabtoli field inspection on 21 February 2026. head_since set to 2026-02-09 per New Age BD explicit date. BADC's seed supply share stated as 33% of national supply per IRRI-BADC inception workshop (26 June 2025, Rice News Today confirmed date); earlier TBS explainer (2024) cited 11.5% -- the 33% figure is more current and comes from BADC's own programme documentation presented at the June 2025 PARTNER workshop; the discrepancy likely reflects different baselines (volume vs. value, or rice seed vs. all seeds). Both figures recorded in notes; the 33% figure (from June 2025 IRRI/BADC workshop materials) is used in last_known_position as the most current. The February 2026 fertilizer procurement figures are cross-verified across BSS News (bssnews.net/agriculture-news/359623 and business/357476), Bangla Mirror News, and UNB. The Integrated Fertiliser Dealer Policy-2025 date (16 November 2025) confirmed by BSS News official publication announcement and New Age Bangladesh. annual_budget_bdt is null: no separate BADC budget line is publicly available in the FY2025-26 budget documents; BADC's operating costs are embedded in the Ministry of Agriculture budget envelope. Minor Irrigation Survey Report 2023-24 published April 2025 on BADC portal -- specific aggregate statistics not extracted as the PDF was not accessible in full; URL included in sources for reference. staff_count of 25,451 is the sanctioned figure from Banglapedia/Wikipedia; actual deployment as of the mid-1990s was already down to approximately 10,781 due to privatisation of inputs supply; current actual headcount is not publicly disclosed.
Sources
- https://badc.gov.bd/
- https://en.banglapedia.org/index.php/Bangladesh_Agricultural_Development_Corporation
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bangladesh_Agricultural_Development_Corporation
- http://bdlaws.minlaw.gov.bd/act-details-1252.html
- https://faolex.fao.org/docs/pdf/bgd35620.pdf
- https://www.thedailystar.net/country/bangladesh-agriculture-development-corporation-badc-bill-2018-placed-in-jatiya-sangsad-1592245
- https://www.newagebd.net/post/country/290744/azizul-islam-new-chairman-of-badc
- https://www.dhakatribune.com/bangladesh/404092/badc-chairman-calls-for-stronger-farm-input
- https://www.newagebd.net/post/country/295486/deliver-agricultural-services-timely-to-farmers-azizul-islam
- https://banglamirrornews.com/2026/02/10/govt-approves-procurement-of-55000mts-of-fertiliser/
- https://www.bssnews.net/agriculture-news/359623
- https://unb.com.bd/category/Bangladesh/govt-approves-procurement-of-55000-mt-of-fertiliser/179285
- https://www.bssnews.net/business/357476
- https://www.bssnews.net/business/318815
- https://www.bssnews.net/news/331989
- https://www.newagebd.net/post/economy/284174/fertiliser-dealership-enforcement-key-obstacle-for-new-policy
- https://www.irri.org/news-and-events/news/irri-badc-launches-digital-tool-improve-rice-supply-bangladesh
- https://ricenewstoday.com/badc-and-irri-launch-digital-tool-to-transform-rice-seed-planning/
- https://badc.portal.gov.bd/sites/default/files/files/badc.portal.gov.bd/reports/1bb70074_2dc9_4174_873f_703891e90268/2025-04-20-10-33-e1fbba90439bb847a9c8c6fd4d822335.pdf