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at a glance

History
By the end of the nineteenth century, the British Government introduced cooperative measures in the form of philanthropic programs for the rural population. The aim was to protect the poor farmers of the village from economically disadvantaged and to free them from the burdens of interest on loan. At that time, the only asset for mortgages to get loans from the Mahajan was land. As a result, indebted small and marginal farmers were forced to earn a living through due diligence, losing their right to access land.

 

Taking into consideration the situation of the peasants of the Indian subcontinent, the British Government passed the Co-operative Loan Association Act on 8 March, in order to launch the Grameen Bank or Credit and Savings Society, the then Collector of Madras province. This arrangement of creating a flow of credit for the rural farmers was greatly affected by the influence of the Department of India in that year. The headquarters of the central co-operative bank of the undivided east of India, especially in Calcutta, was divided into parts of India. As a result, the farmers of East Pakistan suffered huge losses. To overcome this situation, a provincial bank (now known as Bangladesh Cooperative Bank) was established in East Pakistan. But the focus of all measures of this system was to ensure the flow of agricultural credit. As a result, there was no point in taking other aspects of the quality of life of the rural farmers.

 

Researchers began to work to find a multi-sectoral system to solve this problem for rural small and marginal farmers in the country. Based on the results of all these studies in the first part of the sixties Dr. The then Pakistan Academy for Rural Development (now BARD) was established in Comilla under the leadership of Akhtar Hamid Khan. Dr. Khan proposed a comprehensive model for rural development in his research and subsequently started Piloting through BARD, which is known as the 'Comilla Model' in rural development.

 

The 3 parts of the Comilla model

 

The 'vision' of the Comilla model was that unless villages could create leadership among themselves, there would be no urge for change from within rural society. To that end, an underlying vision of the Comilla model was to create leadership at the village level. This is possible only through the formation of village-based cooperatives which are recognized today. The four components of the Comilla model are:

Thana Development and Training Center (TTDC)
Rural Development Program
Police Station Irrigation Program
Two-tier cooperative structure.
Piloting was carried out in 28 police stations in Comilla district and 5 police stations outside the district. After the independence of Bangladesh through the liberation war in that year, the two-tier cooperative structure of the Comilla model was adopted at the national level as a rural development program to create a war-torn country. From that on, the journey of integrated rural development program, ie IRDP, began.

 

The IRDP was transformed into a development agency of the government called 'Bangladesh Rural Development Agency', in order to further accelerate the development of rural development activities with a view to its success. But at the very beginning of the Comilla model and without further piloting, it would not be advisable to convert the program into an organization, after which the IRDP was reinstated after 6 months, following the advice of donors. A survey was conducted on projects implemented by the IRDP with the joint venture of the Government of Bangladesh and the World Bank. The survey shows that the two-tier cooperative system has worked as a beneficial and powerful strategy for rural people in implementing rural development projects / programs adopted by the government, which can claim as the only patent for rural development. Based on the recommendations of the World Bank, the IRDP changed the implementation strategy and adopted the Poverty Reduction Project. Above all, on the basis of the recommendation of this survey, the Government of Bangladesh converted the IRDP into a board in the year 42, which is now the "Bangladesh Rural Development Board (BRDB)"

 Known as

 

The contribution of the BRDB as the golden ladder to rural development, starting from the 'more food paddy' movement in the seventies, is highly appreciated today. The contribution of the BRDB to the rise of agricultural production in the seventies is well known. At that time, the BRDB has been able to mobilize irrigation systems through distribution of various types of handheld tube wells, deep tube wells. From the end of the seventies to the nineties, the BRDB adopted various projects / programs for the development of irrigation systems.

In the meantime, the BRDB has successfully implemented several development projects besides implementing rural development projects through its core activities, namely, two-tier cooperatives; For example, Women Development Program (1), Youth Development Program (3), Non-Profit Program (3) etc. Based on the success assessment of these special projects implemented by the BRDB, several specialized organizations have been created - Directorate of Women Development, Directorate of Youth Development, PDBF etc.

 

In the fiscal year 20-27, the BRDB receives a grant of Tk 120 crore from the government's recurring (agricultural) credit sector, which adds a new dimension to BRDB's field-level actions. BRDB, BIRD, RDA, Bangladesh Agricultural School, JIC for 3-4 term