Dr. Md. Farid Hossain
Message from the Dean
Welcome to the School of Agriculture and Rural Development (SARD). Bangladesh is an agricultural country with an area of 147,570 sq. km and has a population of 170 million. Over 50% of the total areas in Bangladesh are cultivated. The vast majority of the population depends on agriculture and natural resources for their livelihood. The economy and development of this country depend on agriculture and rural development. The agricultural sector has been facing severe challenges against the escalating threat of climatic changes due to various natural and man-made causes. Realizing the importance of agricultural education and training, especially in an agriculture-based country, the university authority established the School of Agriculture and Rural Development in 1996 at Bangladesh Open University in 1996 following Section 23(1) of the BOU Act.
Considering the fact, with a view to imparting need-based education, the School of Agriculture and Rural Development is to impart education through class room teaching in the field of agriculture to boost up the knowledge about different agricultural commodities including crops, poultry, dairy and fish. BOU authority has taken initiatives to produce professionally sound people emphasizing on higher education and research in agriculture. All the academic activities will be conducted under the direct supervision of the SARD faculties with cooperation of specialist teachers of BAU, BSMRAU, SAU and other related universities teachers.
In addition, SARD teachers are actively involved with research. Their research findings are published in the international and national journals and proceedings. BOU has also established several modern laboratory at its main campus would be very much helpful to conduct laboratory based research and experiments. The combined theoretical and laboratory based practical knowledge would be useful to the learners for developing skilled knowledge in the field of agriculture. BOU will developed collaboration with related universities research and agriculture related institutions and organizations. Students will get every insight of knowledge and skills from the program and able to apply the acquired knowledge in developing your own career and serving the nation.