Abu Dhabi: The Abu Dhabi Agriculture and Food Safety Authority (ADAFSA) has received 621 registrations from all over the UAE for the second Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Agricultural Excellence Award.
Of these, 328 people are competing for the main prize, and 293 are entering the related competitions. The awards are intended to draw attention to how crucial the UAE is to food security, sustainable agriculture, and raising the standard of regional output.
The main categories of the award’s registration closed on December 15, 2023, according to the organizing committee.
However, entries are still being accepted for the competitions that go along with the award, which include weekly livestock auctions, milk competitions, weight competitions, and competitions for the best breeds, dates, and produce.
Furthermore, there is still time to register for the live cooking competitions intended for productive families, which indicates that there will be a substantial increase in participants by the end of this session.
The committee stated that of the participants in the main award categories, the Farmer and Breeder Excellence Award drew the highest percentage of registered participants, with 256 in total.
175 of these were in the plant category’s Best Farmer category, while 81 were in the Best Breeder category.
The committee also observed that the Best Female Farmer and Breeder category attracted 45 women registering to compete for this award, which was introduced for the first time in this edition to encourage and recognize outstanding women who are actively contributing to the development of agriculture in Abu Dhabi.
41 women registered to compete for the Best Plant Breeder Award, while three women competed for the Best Animal Breeder Award, with one entry in both the plant and animal categories.
The committee further explained that the competition for the Innovation Award, both plant and animal, recorded 23 participants from different UAE emirates, including 17 participants for the plant part compared to 6 participants for the animal part, while the commercial farms category recorded 4 participants.
The Award is an effort to support food security, foster agricultural innovation, recognize exceptional UAE farmers and livestock breeders, and unite the ideas of agricultural sustainability. In order to enhance the agricultural industry and guarantee the sustainability of resources, it also encourages the implementation of best worldwide practices.