Bangladesh Jute Research Institute BJRI

Bangladesh Jute Research Institute (BJRI) is one of the oldest research institutes in the country. In 1904 Sir R.S. Under the leadership of Finlow, the first jute research began in Dhaka. Then in 1936 under the Indian Central Jute Committee (ICJC) Jute Agricultural Research Laboratory was established in Dhaka institutionally in this country. In 1951, the Pakistan Central Jute Committee (PCJC) was formed to replace the Indian Central Jute Committee (ICJC), and the Jute Research Institute was established at the present site. Bangladesh Jute Research Institute (BJRI) was established by Act of 1974 after the independence of Bangladesh. At present, BJRI is conducting research activities in three streams: (1) research on jute agriculture ie the development of high-yielding varieties of jute and jute fiber crops, production management, and seed production and conservation; (2) Research on jute technology i.e. innovation of value added versatile new jute products and quality improvement of conventional jute products and (3) research and marketing management on the production of jute textiles i.e. jute and cotton and other natural and synthetic fiber blends.

At present BJRI has 6 departments in agricultural research, 4 in technical analysis, 1 in jute textile research, and a total of 12 departments including planning, training, and communication departments. Also, the Central Agricultural Experiment Station for Jute at Manikganj and four Regional Jute Research Centers at Rangpur, Faridpur, Kishoreganj and Chandina (Comilla) and at Tarabo (Narayanganj), Manirampur (Jesore) and Kalapara (Patuakhali) for regionally based agricultural research on jute as per the timely needs and requirements of the farmers. ) has three jute research sub-centers and a jute seed production and research center at Nashipur (Dinajpur). It may be noted that there is a gene bank at BJRI for conserving domestic and foreign seeds of jute, kenaf, and Mesta crops and for use in research work in developing improved varieties. About 6000 germplasm of jute and similar fiber crops collected from different regions are stored in this gene bank. Recently implemented by the BJRI project “Fundamental and Applied Research on Jute” a new horizon has been opened by research excellence by using biotechnology to uncover the genome sequence of Desi and Tosha jute and Dhinchar which has placed Bangladesh at a unique height in the world.