Dates are one of the main crops of the UAE and the academics feel that the fruit can become more important since the food supply of world comes under force from climate and increase in population.

Dr. Linda Katehi, the chancellor at the University of California, Davis, laid stress on the vitality of dates to world food production, in her keynote address to the 4th International Date Palm Conference at the Emirates Palace hotel yesterday.

Since water is getting scarce and climate is changing too, and both are having negative effects on the agriculture industry; so in such conditions, dates have a chance of becoming important to the world's future needs as they can grow in rough conditions too.

The 260 participants from 40 countries attending the three-day conference include Date palm scientists, university researchers, specialists in the field and ministers of agriculture from the GCC region.

Examination and discussion of 144 working papers that concentrate on the cultivation and other aspects of date palms worldwide would be held during this conference.

Prof Abdelouahhab Zaid, the secretary general of the Khalifa International Date Palm Awards said, "This year's conference aims to provide the opportunity to renew scientific knowledge around the different aspects of date palm production, propagation, protection and marketing."

The opening ceremony saw the five winners of the Khalifa International Date Palm Awards being honored.

This year, the winners' prize money was doubled to Dh2.3 million (US$626,000).


Source: topnews.ae