Advanced Seed Research and Biotech Centre (ASRBC) ACI Ltd.

ACI Agribusinesses has been involved in R&D through breeding programs under ACI Seed at the Rural Development Academy, Bogra for the past few years. This is the R&D station of ACI Limited, where breeders are developing new varieties of cereal and non-cereal crops according to market demand. With changing times the business has identified that more sophisticated research needs to take place and has started R&D on molecular breeding under the Advance Seed Research and Biotech Centre (ASRBC) through Public-Private Partnership which is also encouraged by the Government of Bangladesh. At this moment via Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) collaborative research programs have been implemented with Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Agriculture University (BSMRAU), Bangladesh Agriculture Research Institute (BARI), Rural Development Academy (RDA), Hajee Danesh Science & Technology University (HDSTU) and Lund University, Sweden. ASRBC has been established in 2012 primarily to contribute to the nutritional food security of Bangladesh through its own R&D activities as well as by Public-Private Partnership. The vision behind the R&D Centre is to develop better quality seeds with abiotic and biotic stress tolerance. In case of rice, wheat, maize and potato the yield over the years has reached a plateau. But the other major crops like sesame, rapeseed, different spices and condiments, fibrous crops, vegetables, which have not yet been given importance has major potential in contributing to the nutrition intake of the country. The main emphasis has been given to the Southern and Northern regions of the country due to the adverse effects of increasing salinity and drought respectively.