Dr Sheikh Mohammad Bakhtiar, Honorable Executive Chairman, Bangladesh Agricultural Research Council visited ACI Central Research Station, Nijmawna, Sreepur, Gazipur on 28 April 2023 to see the ongoing research activities of ACI Seed; especially rice varieties. From the private sector in the country, ACI has been conducting a variety of development research programs for notified crops, like rice, wheat and potato through a group of skilled scientists considering the farmers' choice. ACI Seed is working with various foreign universities and multinational seed companies to develop rice varieties with a yield potential of 15 MT per hectare. The scientists are relentlessly conducting research programs to develop rice varieties, like Small and Long Grain Aromatic Rice, Blast and BLB resistant using advanced technologies of rice breeding; such as RGA, QTL Deployment Line, Marker Detection and Gene Introgression and getting significant success. About 36 varieties have already been registered/released from these research programs. These varieties will be able to gain the confidence of farmers across the country. In line with these varieties of innovation successes, ACI is continuing to step up its research and development activities. As part of that, ACI has set up its research farm of 100 bigha - ACI Central Research Centre, where notified crop-rice variety development research programs are ongoing. In the next 5 years, ACI is working towards producing and marketing nearly 70% of the seeds supplied locally. Dr Bakhtiar interacted with ACI Scientists and inspired them by providing valuable suggestions. He expressed his satisfaction to see the research progress in the development of international quality Aromatic Rice varieties during the Boro season. Also during the visit, valuable feedback was given by Md. Saiful Alam, Additional Director, Extension and Coordination, Department of Agricultural Extension, Khamarbari; Mr Sudhir Chandra Nath, Business Director of ACI Seed; Dr Md. Abdus Salam, Chief Consultant, ACI Rice Genetics; Mohammad Mizanur Rahaman, Business Operations Manager, ACI Seed; Mr Max Xue, Long Ping Hi-Tech Seed Company, China; Mr Louis Wang and Mr Joe, Jiangsu, Huanso Seed Company Limited were present in the visit program.
