UAE sweeps date palm awards

has bagged four awards at the annual Khalifa International Date Palm Awards (KIDPA). The results for the five categories were announced yesterday. Dr Ahmed Mohammed Saif Al Falasi of the UAE has been chosen as KIDPA’s 2011-2012 Distinguished Personality for his work, ‘Improved Date Palm Nutrition Programme at Abu Dhabi Farmers’ Services Centre and Project Development and Sustainability of Al Ain Oasis at Department of Municipal Affairs of Al Ain Municipality. The Best Development Personality category was won by the Improved Date Palm Nutrition Programme at Abu Dhabi Farmers’ Services Centre (first place) and the Sustainability of Al Ain Oasis at Department of Municipal Affairs of Al Ain Municipality (second place). An image-based system for automatic dates sorting created by Dieffal Abdelhamid of Algeria won the first place for Best New Technique category, while a soil conditioner meant to increase the yields of dates created by Dr Nazir Hussain from Qatar’s Ministry of Environment won the second place. The entries for the Distinguished Producer category were not good enough this time to pick a first winner, but the second prize was awarded to Hamad Ali Salman Al Mazrouei and Salman Ali Mansour Mohammed Al Mazrouei from the UAE for a model farm for the date palm. Syria and Egypt took home the first and second awards respectively for the Distinguished Research and Study category. Each first winner will receive Dh300,000, along with a shield and certificate of appreciation, while the second winner gets Dh200,000. The awards will be handed over during a grand ceremony on March 11 at the Emirates Palace, in the presence of Shaikh Nahyan bin Mubarak Al Nahyan, Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research, and chairman of the Board of Trustees of KIDPA. “We are proud of the high level that the Award has achieved in its fourth session,” said Dr Abdelouahhab Zaid, secretary general of KIDPA. This year, the number of candidates increased both nationally (by 68 per cent) and internationally (by 32 per cent).