Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute

department · verified (verified 2026-05-17)

Profile

Head: Dr. Md. Abdullah Yousuf Akhond
Role: Director General (Routine Charge)
Annual budget: —
Staff: —
Established: 1976
Legal basis: Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute Ordinance, 1976 (Ordinance No. LXII of 1976), which established BARI as an autonomous organisation under the Ministry of Agriculture; repealed and replaced by the Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute (BARI) Act, 2017 (Act No. 12 of 2017), which updated the legal framework, formally empowered BARI to secure intellectual property rights for institute-developed technologies and plant varieties, and tasked it with assessing climate change impacts on agriculture

BARI is in active research production mode under DG (Routine Charge) Dr. Abdullah Yousuf Akhond (appointed August 2024): BARI Misti Alu-17 (drought-tolerant, beta-carotene-enriched sweet potato) achieved farmer-level uptake in the Barendra drought belt (April 2026 field day); BARI scientists participated in structured capacity-building under CIMMYT/CGIAR S4I (December 2025) and in the BRRI cross-institute research review (January 2026 at Gazipur); BARI's cumulative technology portfolio stands at 1,251 technologies including 625 improved crop varieties across cereals, oilseeds, pulses, tubers, vegetables, fruits, flowers, spices, and fibres, and 10,000+ germplasm accessions in the BARI gene bank.

Recent activity

2026-04-01 other A field day held in Kashitara village, Sapahar upazila, Naogaon confirmed farmer-level uptake of BARI Misti Alu-17, a BARI-developed beta-carotene-enriched, drought-tolerant sweet potato variety; deployed across three Barendra-region upazilas (Porsha, Sapahar, Niamatpur) under the Caritas Bangladesh CALL Programme (Swiss Embassy-funded); yields of 5.0--5.5 tonnes per bigha under management conditions, with farmers reporting ~4 tonnes per bigha under field conditions; variety requires no irrigation, reducing production costs on drought-prone land. ↗
2026-01-15 other BARI participated in the seven-day BRRI Annual Research Review Workshop 2024-25, inaugurated at BRRI headquarters auditorium, Gazipur; representatives from BARI, BARC, DAE, and international partners (IRRI) attended to review ongoing research findings, share inter-institute results, and formulate food-security strategies for the coming season. ↗
2025-12-08 other CIMMYT/CGIAR Scaling for Impact (S4I) programme hosted a capacity-building workshop for 25 early- and mid-career BARI scientists (56% women) on creative and systems thinking in agriculture; hands-on sessions covered problem mapping, Scaling Scan assessment, climate-adaptive systems thinking, and policy-aligned research design; participants developed mini-innovation packages for a BARI barley variety; described as BARI's first structured training of this type, with follow-up requests for data analytics, GIS, and scientific writing training. ↗
2024-08-21 appointment Dr. Md. Abdullah Yousuf Akhond, formerly Director (Research) at BARI Gazipur, appointed Director General (Routine Charge) of BARI by Ministry of Agriculture order dated August 21, 2024; Akhond joined BARI's Plant Breeding Division in 1992, holds a PhD in gene editing from the University of Dundee (Scotland), completed postdoctoral research on gene silencing at SASA (Scotland), and is described as a pioneer of modern biotechnology research at BARI; succeeded Dr. Debasish Sarker. ↗↗

Provenance & notes

BARI traces its institutional roots to the Bengal Department of Agriculture (1906) and the Dhaka Farm (1908), but its legal establishment as an autonomous research institute under the Ministry of Agriculture is 1976 (Ordinance No. LXII of 1976), which is used as established_year per the authoritative Banglapedia and Wikipedia entries. The 1976 Ordinance was repealed and replaced by BARI Act 2017 (Act No. 12 of 2017), the current governing statute. Headquarters: Joydebpur, Gazipur-1701 (176-hectare campus, 126 hectares experimental fields). Research infrastructure: central station plus 6 regional stations and up to 28 sub-stations across 3 hill and 25 plain sites (figures vary slightly by source; Wikipedia cites 28 stations total, Banglapedia cites 6 regional + 24 sub-stations). Mandate excludes rice (BRRI), jute (BJRI), sugarcane (BSRI), and tea (BTRI), which have dedicated institutes. Current DG Dr. Abdullah Yousuf Akhond confirmed as Director General (Routine Charge) from August 21, 2024, cross-verified by New Age and Financial Express; his predecessor Dr. Debasish Sarker is confirmed by TBS News article from 2021. Cumulative technology portfolio of 1,251 technologies (625 varieties + 626 non-commodity technologies) sourced from gfmdhaka.com summary; cross-checked against dhcrop.bsmrau.net digital herbarium which lists 509 registered entries (the herbarium is a subset, not the full BARI release database). staff_count null: no publicly disclosed sanctioned-post figure found. annual_budget_bdt null: BARI's budget is embedded in the MoA development envelope; no standalone BARI budget line found in publicly accessible FY 2025-26 sources. The April 2026 field day date for BARI Misti Alu-17 is based on BSS News article text; exact date within April 2026 not specified, set to 2026-04-01 as month-start placeholder. The December 8, 2025 CIMMYT/CGIAR workshop date is confirmed by the CGIAR article. The January 15, 2026 BRRI workshop inauguration date is confirmed by BSS News. verification_status 'verified': all core institutional facts (establishment, legal basis, mandate, headquarters, parent) cross-verified across Banglapedia, Wikipedia, UNEP LEAP (BARI Act 2017), and bdlaws.minlaw.gov.bd; DG appointment cross-verified across New Age and Financial Express.

Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute

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