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12th Liwa Date Festival kicks off

Abu Dhabi - "Dabbas, khallas, kunaizi, farth, bou maan, these are the most popular and most grown varieties of dates in the UAE."

Over 100 baskets of Dabbas were lined up on tables awaiting judgment for the tastiest, healthiest and the best looking date of them all. This variety of date, especially popular in Liwa oasis, was the first of the 10 Ratab - half ripen dates - competitions to kick-start the 12th annual Liwa Dates Festival, which is being held under the patronage of H.H. Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Presidential Affairs.
Organised by the Cultural Programmes and Heritage Festivals Committee, Abu Dhabi, the festival is a celebration of the new harvest of dates across UAE, but also a celebration of Emirati heritage and a great economic support to the Al Gharbia (the Western Region of Abu Dhabi Emirate) population.
"Dabbas, khallas, kunaizi, farth, bou maan, these are the most popular and most grown varieties of dates in the UAE, and that is why we selected them for the Ratab competitions," said Abdullah Butti Al Qubaisi, Director of Projects Management and Communication for the Committee.
"Participants have the option to compete with other varieties of Ratab in the Nukhba competition, which awards the best basket of mixed Ratab," he added.
Also in the Ratab "Mazeinah" (beauty competition), there is the Biggest Bunch competition as well, awarding from AED 2,000 to AED 50,000 for the top five heaviest bunch of dates.
The Festival includes around 35 exhibitors specialising in palm trees and dates, and will shed light on the latest technical and counselling services available to date farm owners.
In a related context, the Abu Dhabi Farmers' Services Centre, ADFSC, is also gearing up to participate in the 12th edition of the Liwa Date Festival.
"The centre seeks, through its programmes and projects, to provide the best agricultural solutions, innovations and practices suitable for the local conditions of the UAE, improve the nutrition of palm trees to preserve their great heritage, and increase the productivity and the quality of dates on farms in Abu Dhabi," said Nasser Al Junaibi, Acting CEO, ADFSC.
Abu Dhabi Farmers' Services Centre will be updating farmers during the event about how it is currently combatting the red palm weevil and other pests threatening the palm trees of the UAE. The centre will also be providing training and technical advice to farm owners in order to raise awareness of the need for water rationing, and methods of improving productivity and increasing quantity.
The red palm weevil (rhynchophorus ferrugineus), is a species of snout beetle also known as the Asian palm weevil. The adult beetles are relatively large, ranging between two and five centimetres long, and are usually a rusty red colour. Weevil larvae can excavate holes in the trunk of palm trees up to a metre long, thereby weakening and eventually killing the host plant.
There are 6.7 million palm trees in Abu Dhabi, and between January 2013 and June 2016, over five million red palm weevils were removed, thanks to the efforts of the Abu Dhabi Farmers' Services Centre.
This was achieved with an emirate-wide programme using pheromone traps that are monitored and maintained on the farmers' behalf by ADFSC.