When the concept of fish farming as a business was introduced to farmers in rural areas of Tonokolili District, Sierra Leone, by the USAID funded Feed the Future Scaling up Aquaculture Production (SAP) project, farmers asked for free tools to help them construct their fish ponds. This was not unexpected as agricultural develop-ment projects had provided free resources in the past, thus stunting farmers’ capacities to innovate and come up with solutions to solve the challenges they face using their own initiatives.