Mr. Xavier Preciado is the Senior Agriculture Advisor at U.S. Agency for International Development in Abuja, Nigeria and member of the U.S. Foreign Service. Most recently he was the Senior Agriculture Advisor and Acting Deputy Office Director of Economic Growth in Cairo, Egypt where he supported a $346 million portfolio in development programming across several sectors including agriculture, business policy, climate change, education, environment, tourism, and trade programs. Xavier has worked and lived in Egypt, Senegal, Afghanistan, Nigeria, and Mozambique supporting economic growth development programming for USAID Missions abroad since 2011. Under his direction, he places a special emphasis on promoting partnerships between USAID and the private sector to improve water resource management, biodiversity, sustainable agriculture, and rural development. Xavier did his graduate work jointly at University of California-Davis and Wageningen UR-The Netherlands, holding a MSc in Soils and Biogeochemistry and another MSc in Agronomy for International Agriculture Development. Of Mexican and Costa Rican heritage, he grew up in California and Costa Rica.