Victor Kalin

Abdelouahhab Zaid (Arabic: عبد الوهاب زايد; born 1 January 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 from 1995 to 2000 and at the Food and Agriculture Organization from 2000 to 2013. Zaid has been the Secretary-General of the Khalifa International Award for Date Palm and Agricultural Innovation..since 2007. In 2015, he was appointed as a Goodwill Ambassador for the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).
==Early life and education==
Abdelouahhab Zaid was born on January 1, 1957. He obtained a diploma as a state engineer in agricultural sciences from the Hassan II Institute of Agriculture and Veterinary Sciences in Morocco in 1981. He then pursued further studies in the United States, obtaining a doctorate in horticultural sciences from Colorado State University in 1990. Zaid conducted two additional studies during his career, receiving support from the Full Bright Foundation in 1993 and the United States Agricultural Development Program (USAID) in 1994. On November 6, 2023, he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate by Sonora State University in Mexico.
==Work and early career==
Zaid has been a Goodwill Ambassador of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations since December 17, 2015. He served as a senior technical expert for the palm tree program in Namibia from 1995 to 2000, and later as the director of the Palm Tissue Culture Laboratory at the UAE University from 2000 to 2013. Since May 2007, he has been the Secretary-General of the Khalifa International Award for Date Palm and Agricultural Innovation. In this capacity, he met with Ambassador Faisal Niaz Tirmizi, Pakistan’s Envoy to the United Arab Emirates, at the Pakistan Embassy. Zaid has also been an agricultural advisor at the Ministry of the Presidential Office in the United Arab Emirates since June 2014. In this role, he visited the International Center for Biosaline Agriculture (ICBA) to discuss collaboration in 2017
Zaid organizes and promotes date palm events and initiatives on an international scale. He was instrumental in organizing the International Date Palm Conference, which has held its second (2002), third (2006), fourth (2010), fifth (2014), sixth (2018), and seventh (2022) sessions, all under the sponsorship of His Highness the President of the United Arab Emirates.
In addition to the International Date Palm Conference, Zaid organized eight sessions of the Emirates International Date Palm Festival in Al Ain from 2004 to 2014. His efforts continued with the Abu Dhabi International Date Palm Exhibition, which held eight sessions from 2015 to 2022. Zaid's influence extended beyond the UAE, as he organized the International Festival of Egyptian Dates from 2015 to 2018 and again in 2022, the International Sudanese Dates Festival from 2017 to 2019 and in 2022, and the International Festival of Jordanian Dates from 2018 to 2019 and in 2021 and 2022. In 2022, he also organized the International Festival of Mauritanian Dates and the International Mexican Dates Festival. There will be the International Pakistani Dates Festival this year, 2024
Zaid established the Khalifa International Date Palm Award and has served as its Secretary-General since May 2, 2007, following a federal decree. He also founded the Distinguished Farmer and Innovative Farmer Award in cooperation with Al Foah Company in March 2017. Additionally, he was instrumental in the establishment of the Khalifa Center for Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering, in collaboration with the UAE University and the Ministry of the Presidential Office of the UAE, serving as its Director-General from 2005 to 2012.
His contributions include founding the International Date Palm Network, where he served as the general coordinator, mobilizing technical support for the date palm industry starting in 2004. He also contributed to the establishment of the Friends of the Palm Society, headed by His Excellency Sheikh Nahyan bin Mubarak Al Nahyan, and served as its Secretary-General since 2003.
Zaid's efforts in organizing the Emirates International Date Palm Festival and the Abu Dhabi International Date Palm Exhibition have been complemented by his ability to establish strong connections with stakeholders in date palm agriculture, industry, and trade. He has provided scientific and technical consultations to numerous countries, institutions, and international organizations, including FAO, UNIDO, AOAD, IsDB, ICBA, UNDP, ICARDA, and DPGN, to advance the date palm cultivation and production sector in the United Arab Emirates and the Arab world.
==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.
Category:1957 births
Category:International agricultural organizations
Category:Moroccan people