Dr. Patrick Okori

Patrick Okori is currently the Executive Secretary of Regional Universities Forum for Capacity Building in Agriculture (RUFORUM), a network of 175 Universities in 40 countries of Africa. Patrick is an agriculture science and education expert and leader. Patrick received his PhD at SLU, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Uppsala, Sweden, and both Master's and Bachelor's degrees at Makerere University, Uganda. Through his carrier Patrick has previously served as Dean of the School of Agricultural Sciences at Makerere University; the Deputy Director of the Global Research Programme on Accelerated Crop Improvement at the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-arid Tropics (ICRISAT).

Patrick has graduated over 50 PhD and MSc Students and is widely published. He has commercialised over 30 varieties of legumes and cereals, that are widely grown in eastern and southern Africa. As a science leader he revamped and strengthened crop breeding and research programmes in eastern and southern Africa. 

Patrick is a thought leader who has been involved in high level planning, strategy and visioning for national, regional as well as continental to global agencies. Early in his career, Patrick was part of the team that developed the Eastern Africa's premier agriculture, bio-policy and bio-innovation research programme, called BIOINNOVATE.