Frequently Asked Questions

Ant Consult provides specialist water and irrigation consulting services to farmers and agricultural corporates, as well as sub-consulting services to established engineering firms. We are a good fit for agricultural corporates and large private farmers pursuing expansion and optimisation strategies. We are not a good fit for small operations with only a few hectares under irrigation.

We bring professional engineering competence to the complex water and agricultural systems space. Working together with you, our experience, technical knowledge and different perspective helps you to simplify and optimise your operation, resulting in efficient, future-proofed systems.

We charge in one of three ways:

• For well-defined projects with few unknowns: we charge a fixed-price fee based on project complexity and time required to complete the scope of work. Examples of fixed-price projects include pipelines, pump stations and irrigation systems. Ballpark costs for these general project types are provided in our cost estimator.
• For projects that are open-ended or not-well defined: we charge based on a time-and-cost framework. Our hourly rates are derived with reference to Engineering Council of South Africa (ECSA) norms. Open ended projects include large scale feasibility studies and flood protection works or any project where it is not clear what the end result will look like.
• We consider charging on a retainer/subscription basis if ongoing services are required.  In this fee model, a client pays a monthly set fee for (up to) a certain amount of non-transferable time per month. This enables predictability and ease of cash flow management for all parties involved.

For all of the above pricing methods, the primary cost drivers include the number of design variables to consider and the level of reporting and drawing output required. As each project is unique, we only provide final pricing once we fully understand your vision for the project. In general, the gross value of engineering services in an infrastructure project falls within the range of 5-15% of the total project capital cost. This fee covers background work such as ongoing research, development, staff training, software and computer costs, as well as the cost of time and expertise.

We believe that having a consistent feedback system where relevant parties are kept in the loop and given space for comments is important for ensuring realistic expectations and ensuring the client's vision is met. Weekly updates will be provided by email or scheduled meetings. For larger projects we utilise a purpose-built web portal for overall project scheduling, document exchange and program updates. This is to provide you with an overview of where we are in the project, as well as keeping you informed of what inputs you as the client need to supply.

Have a look at our detailed blog posts on our AIM Framework for project implementation and our Service Packages.

We can generally get moving within two weeks, workload dependent.