Thnot d’Or awards to be held for agronomy and food processing
THE Kinal Foundation, in collaboration with t he French Agency for Development, t he Ministr y of Agriculture, Forestr y and Fisheries and t he Ministr y of Education, Youth and Sport will hold t he 2019 Thnot d’Or Awards for agronomy and food processing on Saturday.
The second Thnot d’Or Awards will be held at the Kinal Foundation’s headquarters in Phnom Penh’s Por Sen Chey district.
Si x groups of students from t he Royal Universit y of Agriculture, the Kampong Cham National School of Agriculture, t he Institute of Technolog y Cambodia, Prek Leap National College of Agriculture and Takeo province’s Saint-Paul Institute will compete for the $1,000 top prize.
In mid-July, t he jur y selected two teams f rom the Institute of Technolog y Cambodia – one for t heir work on pineapple products and the other on vegetable meatballs and product development – as well as one from Saint-Paul Institute for its research into coconut f r uit processing.
The team f rom the Kampong Cham National School of Agriculture focused on the benefits of coconut processing, while another from the Saint-Paul Instit ute looked into increasing jackf r uit qualit y.
The students from t he Royal Universit y of Agriculture researched the advantages and sustainabilit y of integrated farming system improvements on the env ironment and Cambodian fa rmers’ livelihoods.
The si x groups of students will give presentations of t heir academic work and answer questions posed by the jur y and officia ls f rom t he ministries and t he Siat agro-industria l group of companies.
The jur y will then choose t he top t hree, with t he winners a l l taking home trophies, while first place will be rewarded with $1,000, second $500 and t hird $250.
The Thnot d’Or Awards were established in Cambodia in 2018 by t he Kinal Foundation in an ef for t to encourage students to conduct research in t he agronomy sector to support Cambodia’s r ura l development.
“The Kinal Foundation established Kinal prizes i n 2013 to promote research and creative ideas in t he me d i c a l - p h a r m a c e u t i c a l sector. I want the foundation to have the same role in t he agricultura l sector,” said Hay Ly Eang, t he director of t he Kinal Foundation.
The Thnot d’Or Awards were initiated by Ly Eang’s Cambodia-based specia lit y food producer Confirel.
Him Piset h, Confirel’s deput y di rector-genera l, told The Post on Tuesday t hat students from Ta keo prov i nce’s Sa i nt-Paul Inst itute were awarded t he first pr i ze at last yea r’s Thnot d’Or Awards for using a l l of t he banana t ree in making products such as ca ndy a nd cha rcoa l.
“The students won for processing a ll of the banana tree, which is a treasure, f rom its leaves to its f r uit.
“No part of the banana tree was thrown away – they managed to process it a l l,” Piset h said.