Kazi M. Badruddoza (1 January 1927 – 30 August 2023) was a Bangladeshi agronomist who is credited with using Agricultural Genetics and Plant Pathology to extensively increase agricultural production in Bangladesh thus leading the nation toward self sufficiency in staple cereal crops. He is known as the Father of Modern Agriculture in Bangladesh and the only National Emeritus Scientist of Bangladesh. He was one of the early leaders of the global team of the green revolution for his role in development of high yielding wheat, rice and maize varieties. For his work in Agricultural genetics, Badruddoza was awarded numerous honors, including the Independence Day award, the highest civilian award of Bangladesh. Prior to creation of Bangladesh as an independent state, he was also awarded the Tamgha-e-Imtiaz, a state organized civil award, in former West Pakistan. In addition, he is credited with the genetic engineering for the highly nutritious and large variety of guava, the Kazi Guava. In his honor, the genus of fungus, Kaziboletus. in the family Boletaceae, discovered in Bangladesh, was named after him.
Early life and education
Kazi Badruddoza was born, eldest of six children, on Jan 1,1927 in Bogra, East Bengal, British India, a town located 352 km north of Kolkata, former West Bengal, British India. His grandfather, a graduate of Campbell Medical College in Kolkata, was a General Medicine doctor in Gaibandha, East Bengal. His father, Advocate Kazi Badiuzzaman LLB, a law graduate from University of Calcutta in Kolkata, class of 1921, was a well-known attorney of the Gaibandha Court until his retirement in 1957. Badruddoza’s ancestry can be traced to Meerut, Uttar Pradesh, India where his great grandfather, a member of the Nawab of Meerut's family, was killed in the 1857 mutiny against British colonial rule causing the family to escape to Bengal.
After graduating high school in Gobindaganj, near Gaibandha, Kazi Badruddoza initially enrolled in University of Calcutta in Kolkata, West Bengal, British India in 1945. However, amidst the chaos of Partition of India in 1947, he returned home to Dhaka, former East Bengal which was soon to become East Pakistan. He enrolled in Dhaka University under the faculty of Agriculture, now known as Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University. He completed his Bachelor of Science Hons. degree in Agriculture in 1948. He was appointed as a Research Assistant in Mycology, Department of Agriculture and meanwhile, completed his Masters of Science degree in Agricultural Botany in First Class. In 1953, he was appointed by Dhaka University as an Examiner of Mycology.
In 1954,he was selected by the United States Education Foundation in East Pakistan, for higher studies in the USA with a Fulbright Scholarship. He entered Louisiana State University in September 1954, and was appointed as Graduate Assistant in July 1955. He completed his PhD in Plant Pathology from Louisiana State in 1957. His PhD thesis was titled "Studies on the Isolates Physalospora Tucamanensis, Speg."
In 1960, he obtained a Diploma in Genetics from Lund Institute, Sweden.
Career in Agriculture
East Pakistan
Upon receipt of his PhD in Plant Pathology at Louisiana State University, Badruddoza was offered faculty position there. Being the eldest of six siblings who were financially dependent on him, he declined and returned home in 1957 to pursue a career in Agricultural Research in newly independent (East) Pakistan. He was appointed as head of the Fiber Division as economic botanist. Wheat and maize were unfamiliar crops to the farmers of the region. The Fiber Division carried out research on wheat and maize as well as tobacco.
Sweden
In order to advance genetic research in former East Pakistan in wheat and maize crops, Badruddoza was awarded scholarship to pursue post doctoral research at the Lund Institute in Sweden. In 1960, he received his post doctoral diploma in Plant Genetics and Research from the Lund Institute.
West Pakistan (current Pakistan) Pakistan Agriculture Research Council (PARC)
High Yielding Wheat
While initially in the former East Pakistan upon his return from Sweden, Badruddoza, in 1964, was hired as Senior Director of Research at Pakistan Agriculture Research Council in Karachi, former West Pakistan. He worked closely with American Nobel Laureate and plant geneticist, Dr. Norman Borlaug, with objective of creating semi-dwarf but high yield and disease resistant Mexican wheat varieties in Pakistan. As a result, wheat production doubled in Pakistan between 1965 and 1970, leading to Pakistan's self sufficiency in wheat production by 1968.