Rachid Serraj is the Director of the Africa Initiative and Associate Dean of Strategy at the College of Agriculture, Mohammed VI Polytechnic University (UM6P). He has extensive international experience in research and development, having held senior leadership and scientific roles across Asia, the Middle East, and Africa with organizations such as CGIAR, IRRI, IAEA, ICRISAT, and ICARDA.
His research has focused on crop stress tolerance, symbiotic nitrogen fixation, soil fertility, resource-use efficiency, and the adaptation of dryland agriculture to climate change. He is also widely recognized for his expertise in crop physiology, agronomy, precision farming, and agri-food systems innovation.
Prior to joining UM6P, Serraj was Delivery Manager of the Regional Initiative on Small-Scale Family Farming and Rural Transformation in the Near East and North Africa at FAO. He also served as Senior Project Officer with the Secretariat of the CGIAR Science Council at FAO headquarters in Rome and earlier as Director of Diversification and Sustainable Intensification of Production Systems at ICARDA.
Serraj holds a PhD in Crop Science and Agronomy from Montpellier University, France. He has supervised dozens of MSc and PhD students across Asia and Africa and has authored more than 250 publications, books, reports, and international studies.
Since 2023, he has been a member of the HLPE-FSN Steering Committee and serves on several other international boards and networks, including Desert Network International (DNI).
He is a national of Morocco.
