(MENAFN- Khaleej Times) Â Now entering its sixth season, the Khalifa International Date Palm Award (KIDPA) announced on Sunday that it has started accepting nominations for its awards.
Nominations may be submitted by anyone, from anywhere in the world for KIDPA's five categories: Research and Distinguished Studies, Distinguished Producers, Best Technology, Best Developmental Project and Distinguished Personality.
"The position of the UAE in the date palm industry is almost at the top worldwide, thanks to the government efforts and other organisations such as KIDPA," Dr Abdulwouehab Ziad, the award's general secretary told Khaleej Times.
In fact, according to the Guinness World Records, as of 2005, the UAE reached the world's top place in cultivated date palms with 40,700,000 trees. Since it started five years ago, the KIDPA, held annually under the patronage of the President, His Highness Shaikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, has attracted 573 participants from 38 countries - 20 Arabic and 18 non-Arabic nations.
The largest number of participants, 92, was nominated for the Best Developed Project. The UAE too saw increasing numbers of participants each year, now reaching 55 Emirati individuals and organisations.
"We therefore decided to go forward in our national campaign to extend the scope of the UAE's participation to larger numbers, whether they are farmers, manufacturing producers or researchers and academics, and encourage them to compete in the award's different categories," said Dr Ziad.
"There are several ways of doing this. For example, we participate in the Liwa Dates Festival in July, when we will talk to farmers and anyone interested in dates, encouraging them to take part in the award. Also, we have open days in various regions in cooperation with Abu Dhabi Food Control Authority and the Ministry of Environment and Water," he further explained.
As per the KIDPA constitution, an individual or organisation that won an award is eligible to apply again but only for one of the four other categories he didn't win. He has to wait for three years before applying for the same KIDPA category.
"As in previous years, the award's prizes are the same - Dh300,000 for the first place in each category and Dh200,000 for the second place. Distinguished Personality only has one place and is awarded Dh300,000," said Dr. Ziad.
KIDPA also runs an annual international photography competition on the date palm tree theme, which will be opened for submissions next month. The top three places for the photo contest get $5,000, $4,000 and $3,000 respectively. Nominations for KIDPA are ccepted until October 30.
As in previous years, winners will be announced in February next year and the honouring ceremony will take place in March.
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