The northern part of West Bengal is endowed with diverse natural resources like forest, economic plant resources, agro-ecosystem, etc., with extremely responsive rural communities. It comprises old alluvial, terai and hill zones distributed in six northern districts of West Bengal (Cooch Behar, Jalpaiguri, Darjeeling, Malda, Dakshin Dinajpur and Uttar Dinajpur).

The economy of this part of West Bengal is predominantly agrarian, and agriculture is characterised by low productivity and subsistence farming with a limited number of crops due to inherent soil-climatic and agro-ecological conditions. Improved technologies befitting the agro-climatic and socio-economic characteristics of this region is an important issue.

Keeping this perspective in view, the state government established a satellite campus of the State Agriculture University, Bidhan Chandra Krishi Viswavidyalaya at Pundibari, in Cooch Behar district in 1979. Since then the Indian Council of Agricultural Research has accredited the campus and extended development support. A notable change in agricultural and horticultural crop production, productivity and cropping pattern in North Bengal became perceptible from the late 1980s onwards.

Despite inadequate manpower and infrastructural facilities, the research, extension and teaching activities at North Bengal campus were noteworthy. During the late 1990s a postgraduate programme was started. With the introduction of the National Agricultural Research Project (NARP), Pundibari became the headquarters of the terai-agro climat zone of West Bengal. Since then, specific problems in the region have been taken care of by the campus, and new technologies have been generated through research programmes.

However, all of this was meager with respect to the desire and need of the farmers. Later, the state government further strengthened this satellite campus of Bidhan Chandra Krishi Viswavidyalaya. They ultimately decided to upgrade the campus to a full-fledged state agricultural university in July 2000, covering all of North Bengal. The Uttar Banga Krishi Viswavidyalaya was established by West Bengal Act XX of 2000 and started functioning on 1 February 2001.