A former chairman of the National Livestock Development Board in Sri Lanka has called for the country to stop importing maize for animal feed use because it now produces enough to satisfy its own needs.
Ariyaseela Wickremanayake, managing director of Pelwatte Sugar Industries and chairman of Master Divers Pvt Ltd., is quoted by the Daily News as saying Sri Lanka has become self-sufficient for maize within the past year.
Until 2007, he added, Sri Lanka regularly imported 250,000 tons of maize per year, but a government tax on imports had encouraged local land-owners to start growing the crop.
