After clearing the East, the Livestock Development Ministry has launched a campaign to cultivate maize. Under this programme, around 1,200 acres cultivated in the Kantale area were to be harvested today(6) with the participation of Minister C. B. Ratnayake.

The principal objective of the project is to discontinue the import of maize, thereby saving foreign exchange.

The government had been expending large sums of money on maize imports while it could be successfully cultivated locally, the sources said.

The Trincomalee and Kantale areas had been earmarked for maize cultivation, the sources said.