UAE: 50 honored with Sheikh Mansour Bin Zayed Award for Excellence in Agriculture

The organizing committee announced 50 winners out of 832 entries from different emirates of the country. Entities entered the award’s three main categories, with 227 entries in the Plants category and 121 entries in the Animals category. The award’s parent organizing committee will now promote the awardees’ agricultural practices, with the aim of transferring knowledge and exchanging expertise on best agricultural practices to improve agricultural sustainability and food security in the UAE.

“The Sheikh Mansour Bin Zayed Award for Agricultural Excellence is a genuine expression of our wise leadership’s interest in the renaissance of the UAE’s agriculture and confirms its keenness to encourage creativity and innovation and rely on knowledge and excellence as foundational progress,” said Al Ameri explain.

He noted that the first edition of the award has managed to attract a large number of outstanding farmers, livestock breeders, commercial farms, beekeepers, honey producers and production families from different emirates of the country.

“We are proud of the wide and outstanding participation in the inaugural Sheikh Mansour Bin Zayed Awards for Agricultural Excellence as we were delighted to see the participation of 832 participants,” said Dr. Maryam Hareb Al Suwaidi, Chairman of the Sheikh Mansour Bin Zayed Supreme Council. Sheikh Mansour Bin Zayed Award for Excellence in Agriculture, and Deputy Director General for Operations at Abu Dhabi Agriculture and Food Safety Authority.

Khalifa Suhail Al Mazrouei won first place in the Best Open Farm category for his successful implementation of innovative solutions that contribute to the rational use of natural resources and the cultivation of rare and unique varieties of date palms using good agricultural practices.

In the Best Greenhouse Farm category, Hassan Juma Al Zaabi won the first prize for the economically rewarding diversification of production and the achievement of appropriate high-quality productivity for a variety of crops.

For the Best Fruit Farm category, Sultan Saeed Al-Aryani won first place for its successful implementation of practices that facilitate safe recycling of waste, as well as economically rewarding production activities. In addition to applying biosecurity standards and requirements, he developed a unique numbering system for all planted tagged palms.

In the Best Organic Farm category, Rashid Sulayyem Al-Ketbi won first place for its successful practices that help recycle agricultural waste and use it as organic fertilizer. He also employs economically rewarding production activities to maintain sustainability and applies biosecurity requirements to prevent pests.

Rashid Farhan Al-Kuwaiti took first place in the High Production Livestock Farm category. His main advantage is the presence of a site for the collection of animal waste, processed for recycling in agriculture, and a dedicated entrance for sales services, separate from the activities of the farm, which contributes to the strengthening of the biosecurity system.

Ghanim Sultan Al Suwaidi won first place in the Small Producers category with the implementation of a modern and sophisticated feeding system for buffaloes with feed mills, local manufacturing and the use of dates and syrups in the feeding process. Al Suwaidi was also passionate about using artificial insemination procedures to enhance and develop productivity during his tenure.

In the Best Beekeeper category, Fadel Nasser Al-Saadi won first place for his ability to produce large quantities of honey over several seasons,

Hamed Ahmed Al-Hamid won first place in the Agricultural Plant Innovation category for his ability to find innovative solutions to general agricultural challenges.

In the animal production innovation category, Salem Al Rashedi won first place by coordinating with the authorities to purchase camel meat from the Al Khaznah slaughterhouse, thereby creating investment opportunities in the livestock sector. He also created new foods using camel meat, including camel mortadella.

Pure Harvest Farm won first place in the commercial plant production farm category, while Al Ajban Poultry Farms won first place in the commercial livestock farm category.