1. My name is Dr Shantanu Panigrahi. I am seeking consultancy work in the
general area of poultry development through this website. Although I specialise in the understanding of the potential for
utilising tropical agricultural raw materials, by-products and wastes in poultry rations, I also have broad knowledge
of agricultural development and experience of poultry developmental strategies in the developed countries,
such as the United Kingdom. My approach to agricultural development and within that poultry development is to work to attain
environmentally-sustainable systems for long-term success, which describes my broader outlook on life and specific considerations
in my consultancy work. My curriculum vitae/biodata is available by clicking on the idealism for environmental sustainability
message at the top of this page.
2. Through this website I am offering my poultry expertise and the services
I can provide in undertaking consultancy work as I know that I have knowledge and abilities that should be of great interest
to potential businesses and other clients in the United Kingdom, and in the countries of Eastern Europe, Africa, the Middle
East, South Asia, Latin America and the Far East where I am willing to travel to work individually or as a member of
a multi-disciplinary team to tackle agricultural issues. In my work I pay particular attention to the need for sustainable
soil nutrient replenishment strategies in development and the prevention of soil erosion. I have knowledge of poultry development
from back-yard to intensive production systems and the associated animal feed industries for their intensification within
such considerations.
3. I have a PhD from Reading University of the United Kingdom on an
experimental study of the use of cottonseed meal in laying hen rations that shows previous scientific data to be grossly misleading
on the potential for improving the utilisation of this feedstuff locally where it is produced to reduce poultry feed costs
and increasing the profitability of local poultry production. I have conducted extensive similar research in controlled-environment
experimental conditions on other tropical feeds to realise the under-exploited potential there is for incorporating these
materials in poultry rations in commercial field situations by, if necessary, employing simple feed processing to inactivate
any anti-nutritional factors present and using the feed in targeted nutritional strategies appropriate for different
types of poultry production systems. The other commodities that I have studied in experimental poultry feeding trials include
coconut meal, palm kernel meal, cassava, sunflower meal, sweet potato, stack-burned maize, and yellow (degraded)
rice, some of which I have published in scientific journals. In addition, I have conducted research on developing fish
and poultry offal hydrolysates using formic acid that can be incorporated into poultry rations to utilise fish-bycatch and
meat-chicken packing station wastes.
4. As the Project Designer and Manager I have conducted a 6-year poultry
developmental project in the highlands of Cameroon on adaptive animal feed technology development and transfer to small-scale
poultry farmers to the economic benefit jointly of crop farmers and poultry producers, a concept development in which local
non-governmental organisations participated and the International Potato Centre provided inputs. The major focus of this work
was to develop root and tuber processing methods for the conversion of cassava and sweetpotato directly into grits to
ease the consumption of these cheap but floury food materials by young chicks and hens in order to increase their feed
intakes and efficiency of feed conversion so that the production cycle was reduced and the profitability of the operation
thus increased. For young chicks this was also intended to by-pass the need for employing costly feed peletting technology
thus saving on the huge capital, running, and maintenance costs in the use of such machinery. The report from this project
is still unpublished but is available directly from me as the copyright owner.
5. Similarly, I have worked on small-scale oil-expelling technologies of
the manually-operated ram-press and diesel-powered Tinytech and Simon Rosedown Mini-4O size expellers to develop
the COSEP concept for agricultural development in which small-scale poultry farmers and small-scale oil millers can combine
to develop local economies in developing countries. Data from Zimbabwe have demonstrated tremendous potential for implementing
this concept across the world. Only a synopsis of this work has so far been published, but detailed diet recipes have been
prepared by me and are available at a price that can be negotiated depending on the person or organisation making the request.
6. I am also aware of the need to generate better quality ruminant
feeds in addressing the issue of intensification of mixed crop-livestock farming systems in the semi-arid to humid tropics,
and have much basic experimental research data on crop residues such as rice straw, maize stover, sorghum stover, and other
agricultural and food processing byproducts; poultry does have an important role in these strategies. Through this website I
am therefore also making all my research data and reports available on request.
7. Specifically on project undertaking, I am able to provide various types
of services under contract:
(a) conducting pre-feasibility studies for an assessment of the
potential scope for improving existing livestock production systems based on a 2 week study of the area and its linkages;
(b) providing detailed nutritional strategies for egg laying hens
and broiler chicken;
(c) giving lectures and seminars to university and college students, officials
of poultry science departments of government institutes and associated extension workers, and local non-governmental
organisations, on poultry development strategies and the wider agricultural development;
(d) assisting animal nutrition researchers in the design of controlled-condition
feeding trial experimental design and subsequent on-station and on-farm feeding trials for the testing of diet-recipes (I
have designed numerous diet-recipes for use in developing countries that can be tested straightaway without further experimental
development); and
(e) training personnel in poultry nutrition appropriate to their local
conditions in developing countries;
8. If you wish me to assist you in your organisation in any of the aforementioned
I am available on a maximum of six weeks notice. My current consultancy charges are £120 per day for commercial companies
and universities in Europe, North America and Australasia, and £75 per day for institutions in developing countries. These
charge rates exclude travel, accomodation and living expenses during my stay at the project area.
9. I am also available to examine any special requests for assistance that
is tailored to a particular client's needs and will provide a free-of-charge estimate of how best I would
undertake such assignments to meet the client's objectives realistically.
