The Khalifa International Award for Date Palm and Agricultural Innovation works within its strategic objectives to develop the date palm sector and agricultural innovation at the local and international levels by launching and adopting a number of activities, events and competitions to encourage farmers, researchers and those interested in the agricultural sector and date palm and motivate them to be creative, innovative and distinguished and spread the spirit of fair competition to advance this sector.
Within this promising vision comes the award’s initiative to organize the first international festival of Jordanian dates in Amman during the period 21 - 23 October 2018, in cooperation with the Ministry of Agriculture of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan (MOA), the Jordanian Dates Association (JODA), and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). The International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA), the Arab Organization for Agricultural Development (AOAD), the International Date Palm Network (DPGN), and the Friends of the Palm Society in the Emirates (DFS), whose activities include launching a competition for Jordanian dates to motivate and honor farmers with the finest types. Jordanian dates produced in various regions of Jordan, noting that participation is open to all growers, producers and manufacturers of dates in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan.
The competition aims to foster a spirit of positive competition among local date palm farmers and develop creative activities to achieve high levels of productivity and quality for all local Jordanian date varieties. This, in turn, will improve financial returns, encourage the manufacturing and packaging of dates for export beyond the production areas to other governorates of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, and promote their international marketing. Additionally, it seeks to enhance efficiency and increase farmers' knowledge of modern techniques in palm service, production processes, and post-harvest technologies.
