Shamal Mohammed has joined the IBBC advisory council in his role as an Agritech expert. He is the Head of  Silal – UAE’s Leading Agri-Tech Food Company (part of ADQ), which has as its mission to develop the Agri-food sector within the UAE and beyond. Before moving to Abu Dhabi in 2021, Shamal was the Chief Technology Officer at the Agri-EPI Centre in the UK.

As an Iraqi, Shamal originally studied Geology at the University of Suleimani in Iraq, followed by a Master’s degree in Sustainable Environmental Management (water management) at Middlesex University in the UK, and a Post-Grad Diploma in GIS, MBA, and PhD in Land, and Water Management at Cranfield University before joining Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB) in the UK. He worked for various companies, including Head of Integrated crop technologies at the Agrii, GeoInfo Fusion, Digital field, and more recently, chief technical officer at AGRI EPI Centre UK.

At Silal, Shamal is heading the AgriTech department, leading the deployment of the largest AgriTech Innovation Centre, Innovation Oasis (iO) and implementing a wide range of smart technologies to support local farmers.

Shamal also established strategic partnerships on a national and international level, including collaboration with Bayer, Khalifa University and Mohammed Bin Zayed University for AI.

In his role with IBBC, Shamal says, ‘As Kurdish, Iraqi and British, I am delighted to be able to bring the knowledge I have obtained from the UK and UAE back into the Iraq agricultural sector and advise on our AgriTech projects for the benefit of all Iraqi farmers alongside my work in the UAE.

Christophe Michels, MD of IBBC, says, ‘IBBC is privileged to have such an expert from Iraq supporting our AgriTech committee. We very much appreciate Shamal’s expertise in guiding our projects that will inform the Government of Iraq. Agricultural productivity is one of the big opportunities in Iraq. We hope to address the yield gaps and enable the country to achieve attainable yields through smart agriculture and the insights that Shamal can bring to our board. ‘