Amir Kassam OBE, FRSB, CBiol, PhD, is visiting professor in the School of Agriculture, Policy and Development, University of Reading, UK, and the Moderator of the Global communication platform for the Conservation Agriculture Community of Practice (CA-CoP). He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Biology (UK). In 2005, he was awarded an OBE for services to agriculture and to rural development.
Born in Tanzania, Kassam received his BSc (Hons) in Agriculture and PhD in Agro-ecology from the University of Reading, and MS in Irrigation from the University of California-Davis. During his career, Kassam has worked in many countries with a focus on Conservation Agriculture.
His former positions include: Chairman of the Aga Khan Foundation (UK); Interim Executive Secretary of the CGIAR Science Council; and Chairman of the Tropical Agriculture Association (UK). He has published extensively on Conservation Agriculture, and on systems agronomy, agroecology, land use and natural resources management and in land resource assessment for development planning.