India is the world’s largest producer and consumer of milk, owing to its massive cattle population. However, milk productivity is one of the lowest in the world, mainly due to fodder shortage and lack of preservation techniques. India is home to more than 30 crore cattle, and more than 50% of them suffer from severe starvation. Reports suggest the current deficit in fodder availability is about 50%. The Ministry of Animal Husbandry was formed only in 2019, suggesting the sector has long been neglected.

Cornext, founded in 2015, started out by introducing a disruptive technology called Silage Baling, a naturally fermented, highly nutritious, ready-to-eat green forage compressed and wrapped in the form of Bales. Having supplied more than 1,20,000 MT to several government & private organizations based in India, Cornext successfully implemented the Baled Silage Project under a Public Private Partnership between 2015-19 with the Government of Andhra Pradesh (India). Cornext is currently the leading supplier of Baled Silage in India (in both institutional & private markets). Some of our clients include MILMA (Kerala), BANAS & SUMUL Dairies (Gujarat), SANCHI (Madhya Pradesh), Godrej Agrovet, Godrej Maxximilk, etc.

The journey wasn’t without its challenges, though. The silage baler we imported from Europe broke down right after the very first bale it produced. It took us two weeks to get spare parts and fix the machine, showing us reliability and quickness of service is a challenge with imported balers that are not made for Indian conditions. An even bigger challenge was the bale sizes (400 kgs) which brought a multitude of problems: “a. Loading and unloading needed machines (cranes), hugely diminishing the cost-effectiveness of silage bales; b. A silage bale once opened needs to be maintained in airtight conditions to avoid spoilage. Majority of the Indian Dairy Farmers being marginal, do not have the herd size to be able to consume a 400 kg bale within 2-3 days.” The physical size of the baler also meant production was centralised, making transportation of the silage bales to farther regions extremely costly.

These challenges triggered the development and launch of Mini Silage Baler MSB500, Cornext’s own indigenized (now patented) silage baler made for the Indian conditions (also suitable for similar economies*). Launched in 2017, not only was it the world’s most cost-effective baler, but it also made bales of the size of 50-60 kgs, solving all the challenges mentioned earlier.

With the MSB500-AT-Pro costing less than 1/10^th of an imported baler, farm owners had a newfound opportunity to turn into fodder entrepreneurs, building our ecosystem. This decentralised production of silage helped expedite the awareness and adoption of silage across the country, while hugely saving on the logistics costs, making the end product more affordable for the dairy farmer. We’re proud to share that our network currently has 250+ baling units across the country.

The company today has broadened its portfolio through even more accessible baling technologies in the form of the micro baler and fully automatic balers, the former of which is even more affordable and makes 30-40 kgs bales, the smallest and most accessible in the world. Cornext’s balers have also found home in 20+ countries across Africa, South America, ASEAN, and the Indian Sub-continent, all regions with a dairy profile similar to that of India and could greatly benefit from Cornext’s frugal get world-class technologies.

Recognizing the impact of the company’s work on the people at the bottom of the pyramid and the inherent impact the business has on climate, Cornext has raised its first institutional capital investment in 2024 through Omnivore Agritech & Climate Sustainability Fund. The backing of the VC shows the investor’s trust in the scalability and impact of this business model, which is inclusive by nature.