Fish farms among new chances for arid nations

Solar energy, ecotourism and even fish farms can create new jobs in arid regions of developing nations as global warming strains scant water supplies, a U.N. report said on Tuesday.

A four-year study of drylands in eight countries, ranging from China to Tunisia, showed that people could shift to less water-intensive farming and set up new businesses, sometimes helped by microcredits, to cope with climate change.

"We have to think outside the box, look at options where dependence on water resources is much lower," said Zafar Adeel, a co-author and director of the U.N. University’s International Network on Water, Environment and Health (INWEH)