The Directorate of Jute Development (DJD) had its origin in April, 1966 from the erstwhile Indian Central Jute Committee. Since then it had been working as a constituent unit of the Crops Division of the Union Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare (Department of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare) as a Subordinate Office with its Headquarters in Kolkata. The main objective of the DJD was to bring about a quantitative and qualitative improvement in the production of both Jute and Mesta in the Country. The organization also looked after the development of allied fibre crops like sun hemp, ramie, sisal etc. To achieve the objectives the Directorate had to plan, coordinate and supervise the development and marketing programme of jute and allied fibre crops at the national level. Subsequently, in the year 1995, the Government of India decided to reorganize the Crops Development Directorates having uniform staffing pattern with total staff strength of 31. The reorganization was implemented in June, 1996.