The cooperative movement in the Indian subcontinent began in the late 19th century to reduce rural indebtedness and improve farmers' access to credit. At that time, agriculture was underdeveloped, and farmers depended heavily on village moneylenders. Following Mr. Nicholson’s 1895 recommendation, the Cooperative Credit Societies Act was enacted in 1904 to provide agricultural credit through cooperative societies. After the partition of India in 1947, the cooperative system in East Pakistan weakened. To address this, the East Pakistan Provincial Cooperative Bank (now Bangladesh Samabya Bank Ltd.) was established in 1948. However, cooperative activities remained largely limited to agricultural credit. In the early 1960s, Dr. Akhtar Hamid Khan of the Pakistan Academy for Rural Development (now BARD) introduced the Comilla Model, an integrated rural development approach emphasizing local leadership and community participation. Its four components were: Thana Training and Development Centre (TTDC), Rural Works Programme (RWP), Thana Irrigation Programme (TIP), and a Two-tier Cooperative Structure. The model organized farmers into village-level Krishak Samabya Samity (KSS), federated under Thana Central Cooperative Associations (TCCA). After Bangladesh's independence in 1971, the government adopted the two-tier cooperative system nationwide through the Integrated Rural Development Programme (IRDP). IRDP promoted supervised agricultural credit, training, savings, input supply, and marketing to improve farmers' livelihoods. In 1982, based on government and World Bank recommendations, IRDP was upgraded to the Bangladesh Rural Development Board (BRDB). BRDB has played a vital role in increasing agricultural production, expanding irrigation, and implementing rural development programmes, including Women's Development, Youth Development, and Rural Poor Programmes.