Draft:Abdelouahhab Zaid

Abdelouahhab Zaid (born January 1, 1957) is a Moroccan agronomist and international agricultural consultant specializing in date palms. He served as chief technical expert at the United Nations Development Program (1995 - 2000) and the Food and Agriculture Organization (2000 - 2013). He also currently holds the position of Secretary-General of the Khalifa International Award for Date Palm and Agricultural Innovation since 2007. In 2015, he was chosen as a Goodwill Ambassador for the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).

Education
In 1981, Abdelouahhab Zaid obtained a diploma as a state engineer in agricultural sciences from the Hassan II Institute of Agriculture and Veterinary Sciences in the Kingdom of Morocco. He also obtained a doctorate in horticultural sciences from Colorado State University in the United States of America in 1990. Abdelouahhab Zaid conducted two studies at some stage. After two doctorates, the first in 1993 sponsored by the Full Bright Foundation, and the other in 1994 sponsored by the United States Agricultural Development Program (USAID). On 6 November, 2023, he was awarded a Honorary Doctorate by Sonora State University in Mexico.

Career

 * Goodwill Ambassador of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, since 17 December 2015.
 * Senior technical expert for the palm tree program in Namibia (1995 - 2000)
 * Senior technical expert as director of the Palm Tissue Culture Laboratory at the UAE University (2000 – 2013)
 * Secretary-General of the Khalifa International Award for Date Palm and Agricultural Innovation from May 2007 until now. He met with Ambassador Faisal Niaz Tirmizi, Pakistan’s Envoy to United Arab Emirates at Pakistan Embassy
 * Agricultural advisor at the Ministry of the Presidential Office in the United Arab Emirates from June 2014 until now. It was in this role he visited the International Center for Biosaline Agriculture (ICBA) to discuss collaboration in 2017

Work

 * Organized the International Date Palm Conference.   Its second (2002), third (2006), fourth (2010), fifth (2014), sixth (2018) and seventh (2022) sessions were sponsored by His Highness the President of the United Arab Emirates, may God protect him.
 * Organized 8 sessions of the Emirates International Date Palm Festival (2004 - 2014) in Al Ain.
 * Organized 8 sessions of the Abu Dhabi International Date Palm Exhibition (2015 - 2022) in Abu Dhabi.
 * Organized the International Festival of Egyptian Dates Consecutively (2015 - 2016 - 2017 - 2018 - 2022)


 * Organized the International Sudanese Dates Festival respectively (2017 - 2018 - 2019 - 2022)


 * Organized the International Festival of Jordanian Dates respectively (2018 – 2019 – 2021 – 2022)


 * Organized the International Festival of Mauritanian Dates (2022)
 * Organized by the International Mexican Dates Festival  (2022)


 * He established the Khalifa International Date Palm Award and was appointed its Secretary-General by federal decree dated May 2, 2007.
 * Established the Distinguished Farmer and Innovative Farmer Award In cooperation between the Khalifa International Award for Date Palm and Agricultural Innovation and Al Foah Company since March 2017.
 * Founded the Khalifa Center for Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering In cooperation between the UAE University and the Ministry of the Presidential Office of the UAE, he was appointed Director-General of the Center from 2005 to 2012.
 * He founded the International Date Palm Network and was appointed its general coordinator, through which he mobilized technical support to serve the date palm tree (2004).
 * He contributed to the establishment of the Friends of the Palm Society, headed by His Excellency Sheikh Nahyan bin Mubarak Al Nahyan, and was appointed its Secretary-General (2003).
 * Organized 8 sessions of the Emirates International Date Palm Festival (2004 - 2014) in Al Ain.
 * Organized 8 sessions of the Abu Dhabi International Date Palm Exhibition (2015 - 2022) in Abu Dhabi.
 * He was able to establish strong connections with those interested in date palm agriculture, industry and trade, and provided scientific and technical consultations to many countries, institutions and international organizations such as (FAO, UNIDO, AOAD, IsDB, ICBA, UNDP, ICARDA, DPGN)  to advance the date palm cultivation and date production sector in the United Arab Emirates and the Arab world.
 * He is among the organizers for the Khalifa International Award for Date Palm and Agricultural Innovation. In January, 2024 he awarded the awards to the respective winners at the 16th session held at the Emirates Palace Hotel, Abu Dhabi

Awards and honors

 * Award B-R. Sen from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in 1999.
 * Excellence Award from the Arab Organization for Agricultural Development for the year 2000.
 * Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) Medal of Honor 2019.