President, Galilee International Management Institute, Israel, Dr Joseph Shevel, has said that food importation is hurting Nigeria's economy, pointing out that the country spends $11billion yearly to import wheat, rice, sugar and fish.
This development, he said, has made the country the largest importer of wheat and second largest importer of rice globally.
Shevel said that Nigeria can be a global superpower in agriculture by investing in research and development, agriculture, water and environmental management and making deforestation a criminal act.
Presenting a paper titled: "Higher Education and National Development: Lessons for Nigeria", at the 64thInterdisciplinary Discourse of the Postgraduate School, University of Ibadan, put together by the dean, Professor Adeyinka Aderinto, Shevel insisted that Nigeria cannot become a global power with near zero investment in its key sectors.
He lamented that even though Nigeria has enormous potentials in agriculture, only 40% of the country's existing 84million hectares of arable land was cultivated.
Shevel said that Israel, a nation without oil, water, land, became a global high-tech country, competing globally, with 67 years investment in quality research and development, adding that Nigeria needed a visionary leader to move it forward.
(Daily Trust)
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