Here are the short and concise reasons why maven is a better choice than ant for project builds:

• Maven can run any ant scripts you need, so maven can do any thing ant does.
• Maven does not need to be explicitly told to compile java files or build a war or ear file, so there is less xml code to write to get the build up and running.
• Maven has integrated plug-ins already written for unit testing and reporting and for maintaining a project status web site with all kinds of useful project management reports.
• See http://maven.apache.org for more information