Army comes to country’s rescue by successfully cultivating maize to obtain required corn seed

By Ifham Nizam

The Army has successfully cultivated more than 100 acres with maize on the Polonnaruwa Kandakadu farm to obtain seeds for the next Maha Season cultivation.

 When Agriculture Minister Mahinda Amaraweera visited the Kandakadu farm last Saturday, Army officers said urea was necessary to ensure a good yield.

 The Minister instructed Ministry Secretary Rohana Pushpakumara to make urea available.

 The Kandakadu farm encompasses about 1000 acres, of which the Ministry of Agriculture has decided to hand over 3,000 acres to the Sri Lankan Army for the cultivation of maize during the next season. In addition, the Rehabilitation Authority has provided 250 acres for maize cultivation by using the labour of the Army camp, run near the Kandakadu farm.

 The Kandakadu Army Camp has also started a successful chili cultivation of about 100 acres.

 The Ministry of Agriculture has planned to plant maize for animal feed on 60,000 hectares of land next Maha season. But the current problem is that there are not enough maize seeds. Currently, the amount of maize seeds is enough for only 50,000 hectares.

 Therefore, the Minister expressed his gratitude to the officials for cultivating 100 acres of maize to obtain corn seeds required for the cultivation of the Maha season.

 The shortage of animal feed has now severely affected the poultry and dairy industries. According to the current situation, it is not possible to import the raw materials required for animal feed products such as maize and sorghum, for want of foreign exchange. Therefore a plan is underway to increase the production of corn for animal feed by cultivating 60,000 hectares of maize during the next crop season.

 “If we do not take the necessary measures to produce maize and other animal feed, next year the price of eggs and chicken meat in the Sri Lankan market will rise exponentially. Therefore, our goal is to produce at least 75 percent of the 400,000 tonnes of maize we need annually,” the Minister said.

 The Minister also said that steps had been taken to hand over all the lands owned by the government to the Army for cultivation of food crops.