Prof Tej Partap, the 98th President of the Association of Indian Universities is an internationally renowned Policy and Strategy Expert of Mountain Farming Affairs, Mountain Agriculture and Organic Agriculture Development Strategies. He is currently serving Govind Ballabh Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar as the Vice Chancellor. A breakthrough leader, Prof Tej Partap carries with him a long experience of institutional leadership at national and international level particularly as Vice Chancellor of CSK Himachal Pradesh Agriculture University, Palampur for two terms; Sher e Kashmir University of Agriculture Sciences and Technology, Srinagar and APG Shimla University, Shimla for one term each. At international level, he served as Programme Leader at Mountain Agriculture Division, International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), Kathmandu.

A visionary and passionate Agricultural Scientist, Prof Tej Partap was instrumental in preparing the Vision and Mission 2020 of Organic Agriculture in India. He initiated Organic Agriculture movement in India by setting up International Competence Centre for Organic Agriculture (ICCOA). The National Commission on Farmers used his services to formulate hill agriculture sector and organic farming sector reports and to lead the team which prepared the Organic Sub-sector Proposal for 11th Five Year Plan.

An International Mountain Agriculture Development Policy Expert, he made significant contributions as Head of the Mountain Agriculture Programme at the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) for 13 years. He was on the Steering Committee of the Global Mountain Program of CGIAR for three years and represented Asia Pacific as elected representative on the Governing Board of the Global Mountain Forum (2000-2002) . He is one among the rare few who had the credit of working in the Andean region of South America, Alps in Europe, African highlands, Asian uplands from Thailand to Philippines and Japan and every part of the 8 countries of the Hindu Kush Himalayan region from Afghanistan to China to Myanmar.

Some of his widely acknowledged exceptional achievements include the Tibet Agriculture sector Institutional Capacity Building programme; bringing China’s sea buckthorn success story to outside world and bringing the Sloping Agriculture Land Technology of Philippines to our part of the world.

Recognizing his outstanding contributions, he was conferred with Himachal Ratan award in 2001 by H E Governor of Himachal Pradesh. He is also a recipient of award of Honorary Professor of Mountain Agriculture by Tibet Academy of Agriculture and Animal Sciences (TAAAS), Lhasa, China in 1994 and Honorary Professor of Mountain Agriculture by Institute of Geography, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing in 1995.