Islamabad: Pakistan’s ambitious shift to solar-powered farming, once hailed as a sustainable answer to rising energy costs and power shortages, is now being linked to a severe groundwater crisis that threatens the country’s agricultural backbone.

Across Punjab, the country’s agricultural heartland, farmers are increasingly installing solar-powered tube wells to irrigate their crops. These pumps, which operate independently of the national grid or diesel generators, have offered farmers consistent access to water, reducing costs and dependence on unreliable electricity supplies. Many, like rice farmer Karamat Ali from Muridke, describe the transition as transformative. Selling livestock to invest in solar panels, Ali now irrigates his rice fields with ease, calling the system more reliab

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