A programme to cultivate maize on 95,000 hectares islandwide is being initiated. Under this programme, the issue of maize seeds to 1,500 farmers in the Kalawewa electorate was carried out recently with each receiving five kilograms of seeds.
Referring to the national maize cultivation programme, Agriculture Minister Duminda
Dissanayake told Daily News that the late CM (NCP) Berty Premala Dissanayake pioneered the programme to increase maize cultivation from 2,000 acre Chena Cultivation in 2006 in the Anuradhapura district to 80,000 acres. He said at present maize was grown on around 75,000 hectares in the country and the aim was to increase it to 95,000 hectares.
“The harvest from maize cultivation in one hectare was 3.7 metric tons and it was excepted to harvest 04 metric tons under the proposed cultivation programme. We require 400,000 metric tons annually whereas the local annual maize production is only 250,000 metric tons,” the minister emphasized.
He said the aim was to grow maize in 25,000 hectares within the next three cultivation seasons in the Anuradhapura district. However, the main problem in growing maize on a large scale was the heavy soil erosion. To mitigate the effect a maize farmer would be offered Rs. 28,000 as an incentive for making earthen bunds to avoid the soil erosion.
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