‘Food Self-sufficiency Is Bedrock Of Industrial Revival’

CHANCELLOR of Covenant University and newly opened Landmark University, Bishop David Oyedepo, has emphasised that no country can achieve sustainable economic growth if it cannot guarantee food security for its citizenry, as agriculture revolution is the springboard of industrial revival.

Making the remark at the commissioning, the clergy charged the government to pay adequate attention to agriculture revival, as the country cannot continue to rely on imported foods if it truly wants to revolutionise the industrial sector.

He said: “Agricultural revolution is known to occur when people begin to domesticate plants and animals, thereby resulting in a continuous and sustainable agro-supply. An Agricultural revolution is always synonymous with inventing new facilities, for example the new machinery use for the Textile Industry, started the Industrial Revolution… National industrial revolution is historically known to be the outcome of an agricultural revolution. `

“The incontrovertible contribution of agriculture to the industrial revolution in the United States of America, for example, was the ever-increasing need for more and better farm machinery. In the era just before the insurgence of automobiles, many of the largest manufacturers in America were partially or totally dedicated to producing farm machinery. With the automotive age came the first tractors with internal combustion engines — possibly the biggest single revolution that ever took place in farming. But it was farming that supplied the need for that generational technological revolution. This is our strategic vision path for Landmark.

“Our poor rating in technological development cannot be dissociated from our straying away from technological and industrial revolution, which is through an agricultural revolution. Generally our agricultural profile as a nation clearly shows that agriculture remains the dominant sector in the rural areas of Nigeria; it provides employment for more than 60 per cent of the population; Nigeria is blessed with fertile lands, good rainfall regime and favorable climates; Nigeria used to be world’s largest producer of cocoa, palm oil and groundnut and the country has lost prime position in agricultural produce except in cassava roots and yam tubers where it is beginning to show signs of sustained growth.”

Oyedepo said the warning by developed world that it would not continue to encourage importation of food should serve as a clarion call to African country in this regard.

Source : Guardian