Abstract
The need to achieve a zero poverty and no hunger is mandatory for every state that is signatory of the United Nations (UN) Charter. South Africa being one of the UN member states still faces problems of hunger and poverty that makes it difficult for it to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) goals one and two. The initiative of establishing South Africa’s National Development Plan (NDP) Vision 2030 document was an attempt to fight hunger and poverty by the year 2030. The present study aimed to investigate whether in the next eight years the country shall have overcome hunger and poverty, thus achieved a zero hunger and no poverty. The findings of the study are that due to the failure to understand that sustainable agriculture as a driving force in achieving zero hunger and poverty, the NPD vision 2030 shall not have achieved the above aim in the remaining eight years. The findings indicate that sustainable agriculture is key to achieve zero hunger and no poverty because it increases and strengthen people’s income, leads to economic and human growth, and yet the document does not focus on this endeavour. There are further findings that inequality between the haves and have-nots, that has extended in the agricultural sector remains a hindrance and poses threats to the achievement of zero hunger and no poverty. It is further argued that the inequality in the agricultural sector in the country is linked to a well-established divide between the rich and the poor and has resulted in unequal economic income growth that makes it impossible to achieve zero hunger and no poverty in the country by 2030. The NDP Vision 2030 document that postulates the country to have achieved zero hunger and no poverty failed to understand this divide and failed to establish policies in which this inequality in the agricultural sector could be addressed. Sustainable agriculture would lead to creations of sustainable markets both in the rural and urban areas that will enable agricultural transactions to take place and strengthen people’s income. The study recommended that there is a need to understand that sustainable agriculture is the driver of human and economic growth hence is the driving force towards achieving zero hunger and no poverty. It is the backbone of an economy and sustained growth in agricultural productivity it is further necessary to improve food security. The study also shows that there is need to understand sustainable agriculture that promotes human capital, and human capital in turn is the remedy for poverty and hunger. There is need to understand that sustainable agriculture leads to the creation of investments and employments thus leads to sustainable economic income. The study adopted a qualitative research methodology design with an exploratory approach.