The Caprivi Region is well supplied with natural pans and ponds and has numerous old "borrow pits" left from past road construction activities. This makes the Region suited to fish ranching that uses ponds stocked with fingerling to grow larger fish. Such ponds can be either ephemeral, where fish need to be stocked annually and harvested a few months later when the ponds start to dry out, or semi-permanent, where stocking can be less frequent provided naturally produced fingerlings are left in the ponds when harvesting of the larger fish takes place. From 2007, NGOs assisted local people to develop fish ranching activities at 30 sites in Caprivi. This is the only project of this nature in Namibia and has the distinct advantage over fish farming is that inputs are very low (mainly labour to clear ponds of unwanted plants and fish species, feeding with any garden or food waste and harvesting). The existing fish ranching initiative is viable. Annual records from half of the existing ponds show that the commercial value of fish harvested would be about a quarter of a million Namibian Dollars, if the fish had been sold at the Katima Market. As most of the harvest from the fish ranching was consumed locally, this is an amount that people potentially saved in not having to buy food to eat. As Mr Tsukhani from Machita said, "If the fish ranching project continues, our sons will eat". An estimated sales figure from the actual fish sold at all the fish ranching sites in one year was about N$ 40 000. Some of this fish sales income was reinvested in the fish ranching business through the purchase of fishing equipment (e.g. hooks were bought at Lyanzoka) or fish food (e.g. bran at Machita). Other income was invested in education. At Machita village, the fish pond committee opened a Nampost account with the N$ 1 500 they earned from selling big fish and also fingerlings to a neighbour. Most of this fish ranching income (N$ 1 000) was spent on school funds and uniforms for 22 orphans. The price for fish in Caprivi is high (N$ 10/kg at source or N$ 20/kg Katima Market) and market forces have the potential to provide the incentive for continued management of fish ranching at the community level.