Population plays a crucial role when it comes to per capita resource availability in any country. Naturally, if a country has low population, it would certainly have more per-capita resources available and vice versa. UNFPA Pakistan points out that the country’s population is expected to be 403 million by 2050 from existing 240.5 million people. It is an exponential increase in population and highlights the fact that we must manage our natural resources sustainably. If we will use our natural resources unsustainably, we would not be able to ensure that everyone would have enough food on its plate by 2050. As per World Food Programme (WFP), 82% people in Pakistan are unable to pay for a healthy diet. Apart from this, 40% of the children, less than 5 years in age are stunted and almost 21% of the population is undernourished in Pakistan. We must act now to ensure that everyone would have enough food on the plate and that no one would sleep empty stomach. Our canal system plays a crucial role in agriculture sector. The first and the foremost step in this regard is to increase its efficiency to achieve more productivity out of each drop of water. A research article “Water politics in Pakistan: The internal and external dynamics” published on December 17 (2024) points out that a total of 142 BCM of water is usually available at canal headworks out of which 55 BCM is utilized only. The remaining 87 BCM of water is wasted during transportation through canals, watercourses and application in agricultural plots. Pakistan cannot afford to lose water either because of leakage or via evaporation. It must execute actions to minimize water loss. One step is to fix the leakages in canal system. Another is to install solar PV panels on top of canals to prevent water loss due to evaporation, save agricultural land to produce food and to generate clean electricity. It would be an excellent example of managing water-food-energy nexus sustainably and how we can use a single resource to optimize the production of all three resources. In addition to already spoken benefits, canal based solar PV panels will block sunlight from reaching the water surface, thus preventing algal bloom in the canals. Likewise, water flowing beneath the solar PV panels will keep them cool and as a result will enhance their efficiency from 2.5 to 5%. Pakistan has what it takes to commence sustainable social and economic development and to meet the challenges of today and tomorrow. Agrivoltaics is a concept where farmers install solar PV panels on their agricultural plots to produce food and clean electricity from same piece of land. A report “Agrivoltaics: producing solar energy while protecting farmland” points out that a farm with solar PV panels would produce both 80% food and 80% electricity. Thus, we will exponentially increase the yield from single plot of land up to 160%. If we follow the conventional approach, we need 2 separate plots to grow food and to generate electricity. However, by adopting agrivoltaics we will minimize the use of land since we will rely on a single plot and would thus exponentially increase our return on investment. This will help our farmers in boosting their revenue earned through the sale of both crops and electricity. It means more finances in the farmer’s pocket and as a result an improved quality of life leading to women empowerment and sustainable social and economic development in rural parts of Pakistan. We cannot ignore the fact that by 2050 we will be over 400 million people, thus our demand for food, electricity and water will also increase almost 1.7 times respectively. We must learn to do more with less resources and we must ingrain sustainability into the very fabric of our society. To conclude, our population will increase exponentially by 2050. Thus, we must learn to do more with less resources to meet the demands of our growing population and to commence sustainable economic development. The idea’s discussed here are realistic and financially doable. It will increase an access to electricity in rural parts of Pakistan and foster revenue earning for our farmers. An improved financial situation will certainly lead us to women empowerment and a balanced economic growth in rural and urban parts of Pakistan. However, we must train our farmers adequately in this regard and thus there is a dire need that farmers would get the much-needed help whenever they need. Pakistan has what it takes to commence sustainable social and economic development and to meet the challenges of today and tomorrow. Using our given resources consciously and applying out of the box thinking will lead us to energy and food independence both today and tomorrow. The choice is ours and will always be. The writer is a Stockholm-based policy analyst and the Founder / Operations Manager of Project Green Earth (www.projectge.org)