KIDPA announces ‘Date Palm International Poetry’ competition winners

Abu Dhabi, The Gulf Observer: KIDPA – Khalifa International Award for Date Palm and Agricultural Innovation General Secretariat has announced the winners of the 7th edition of “Date Palm International Poetry” competition, which is held under the patronage of Sheikh Nahyan bin Mubarak Al Nahyan, Minister of Tolerance and Coexistence and Chairman of the Award’s Board of Trustees.

In the first category (Official Arabic), the first place went to Ashraf Mohamed Abdel Aziz Mohamed. Hawraa Ali Yousef Al-Hamili won second place and Reem Yassin Qaziz third place.

The second Category’s (Nabatti) first-place winner is Youssef Obaid Khamis Al Falasi. Saleh Awad Al-Nabaa and Saleh bin Ali Al-Hatemi won the second and third places, respectively.

About 716 poets from 17 Arab countries participated in the competition, who wrote their poems in the official Arabic language and the Nabati tradition, expressing their love for the date palm tree.

Dr. Abdelouahhab Zaid, Award’s Secretary-General, announced the winners in a press statement after receiving the results from the jury specialising in Nabati poetry and literary criticism.

The Secretary-General said that the competition aims to use Nabati poetry as an important medium to develop public awareness of date palm trees’ importance in heritage, agriculture, food and economy. This also helps promote the culture related to the date palm. The competition may also enrich the Arab library and the poetry scene with a distinctive quality of poems on date palm tree.