Southeast Asia-wide photo contest searches for faces of agricultural innovation

The 2020 edition of the annual photo contest launched by the Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (SEARCA) is in search of striking images of agricultural innovation in Southeast Asia.

The SEARCA Photo Contest is open to Filipinos and nationals of Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore, Thailand, Timor-Leste, and Vietnam.

“We are looking for beautiful images that show people taking part in activities that contribute to food and nutrition security, sustainable farming systems and natural resource management, agribusiness for increased productivity and income, enhanced agricultural and rural development (ARD) towards climate resilience, gender and youth engagement in ARD, EcoHealth/One Health applications to ARD, and transformational leadership in ARD,” said SEARCA Director Dr. Glenn B. Gregorio.

He explained that these are the seven priority areas of SEARCA’s 11th Five-Year Plan (2020-2025), which is geared towards Accelerating Transformation Through Agricultural Innovation (ATTAIN), hence this year’s photo contest theme “Faces of ATTAIN.”

“The ongoing pandemic looms over the future of the world, so now is the best time to highlight people working in agriculture and rural development and to celebrate their resilience and innovativeness in these challenging times,” Dr. Gregorio said.

To minimize cases of plagiarism, contestants required to certify that they own the photographs and that submission of an entry to the contest indicates full permission granted to SEARCA to use it—with proper credit to the photographer (for mass-produced print and publication)—in SEARCA activities.

The photograph should be original, should not have previously won in any past photo contest, has not been published elsewhere (print or electronic), and has not been digitally altered or enhanced.

For the competition, the first prize winner will receive US$1,000, while the second and third prizes will get US$800 and US$500, respectively. A People’s Choice award will receive US$200, and  winners of the Department of Education Secretary’s Choice and the SEARCA Director’s Choice will both receive US$500 as well.

All entries must be submitted online at https://photocontest.searca.org/ until 30 November 2020.