Milk weighed and tested at the centre with the fat and SNF reading pulled straight from the analyser, the rate worked out from your chart, and a slip on the farmer’s phone before he leaves. Ten-day bills paid to bank accounts, cattle feed and advances deducted correctly, and a farmer app in Marathi or Hindi. For FPOs, it covers member records, crop procurement with grading, input orders and traceability. Built for dairy co-operatives, private dairies, milk collection centres, farmer producer organisations and agri-input dealers in Maharashtra and across India.
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Collection centres, the chilling plant, the office, the input shop and farmers working from one set of records: members, animals or plots, milk or produce, rates, deductions, payments and stock.
For the dairy or FPO office, the accounts team, the chilling or processing plant and the board.
An Android app for members, with WhatsApp and SMS for those who do not install apps.
For the collection centre secretary or operator, and for field staff and procurement agents in villages.
In a village in Ahilyanagar or Kolhapur, the milk collection centre opens twice a day. Between 5:30 and 8 am, two hundred farmers come with cans. The operator weighs each can, takes a sample into the analyser, reads the fat and SNF off a small display and writes them in a register or types them into a basic machine. Every ten days, someone in the office works out each farmer’s bill from the rate chart, subtracts cattle feed taken on credit and loan instalments, and pays in cash or by bank transfer. The milk goes by truck to a bulk milk cooler or a chilling centre, where it is tested again.
Each step can go wrong, and every mistake reaches a farmer’s pocket. A fat reading typed wrongly. A rate chart changed by the dairy but not updated at the centre. Milk weighed in kilograms but paid in litres with a conversion nobody can explain. Cattle feed deducted twice. A truck that left with 1,900 litres and reached the plant with less. Farmers who cannot see why this bill is lower than the last one start pouring at the private dairy next door, and once they move, they rarely come back.
Farmer producer organisations face the same problem with crops. An FPO in Nashik or Latur procures soybean, onion or grapes from members, grades and stores them, and sells to processors, exporters or on e-NAM. It may also run an input shop selling seed, fertiliser and pesticide to members, which needs separate dealer licences. The board needs to show members fair weights and grades, pay them on time, and keep the books clean for the auditor, the bank and the government scheme that supports the FPO.
Infoways, a web, app and software company in Mahape, Navi Mumbai, builds milk collection software, farmer apps in Marathi and Hindi, FPO procurement and input systems, and the office and plant software behind them. Below: how each module works, the rules and terms that matter, how it compares with the ready-made dairy and FPO software you have probably been shown, and how to roll it out across centres where the network drops and the operator has been using the same register for twenty years.
Eight modules, who uses each one, and the field conditions that decide whether the system survives the first monsoon.
Used by the centre operator. The farmer’s code is entered or his card scanned. The app reads weight from the electronic scale and fat, SNF and added water from the milk analyser through a cable or Bluetooth, so nothing is typed by hand. Cow and buffalo milk are kept apart. The rate is picked from the chart, the amount is shown, and a slip is printed and sent to the farmer by SMS or WhatsApp. If the electricity or network fails, the app keeps working on a battery-backed tablet and syncs when the signal returns. Manual entry is allowed only with a reason, and is logged.
Solved in your appUsed by the dairy office. Most dairies pay on a chart: a base rate for a standard fat and SNF, with additions and deductions for each tenth of a point above or below, separately for cow and buffalo milk. Some use a two-axis formula on fat and SNF. Charts can differ by season, by centre or by milk scheme, and change on a date. When the dairy issues a new chart, it reaches every centre with its start date and shift, and old pourings keep the old rate. Where a state sets a minimum price for a standard quality, as Maharashtra has done, the chart can be checked against it.
Solved in your appEvery ten days, or on your cycle, bills are built from the pourings. Deductions come in a set order: cattle feed and mineral mix taken on credit, loan or advance instalments, insurance premiums, share capital, and any recovery the society approved. The farmer sees each one on his bill and in the app. Payments go by bank file or a payment link to the member’s bank account, with a list of failed transfers to fix. Where a government scheme pays a subsidy per litre, the records it needs, such as litres, quality and bank details per farmer, are ready to export.
Solved in your appMilk moves from village centres to bulk milk coolers or chilling centres and then to the plant. Each dispatch records quantity, fat, SNF and temperature at the centre, and the same at receipt. The system compares them per truck and per route, so losses and quality drops are visible by route, not just as one number at month end. BMC tank levels and cooling times can be logged, and if the cooler has a controller that offers data, it can be read in. Rejected milk, sour or adulterated, is recorded with the test result, and the farmer is told why.
Solved in your appBuilt for farmers with basic Android phones and little patience for forms. The home screen shows today’s pourings, this period’s amount so far and the last bill, in Marathi or Hindi with large numbers. The passbook explains every deduction. Farmers can order cattle feed or inputs, ask for a vet visit or artificial insemination, and get advisory messages and short voice notes from your field team. Farmers who do not install the app get the same slip and bill on WhatsApp or SMS, so nobody is left out.
Solved in your appUsed by the FPO office and procurement staff. Each member record holds shares, land and crop details, and bank account. At the collection point, produce is weighed, graded by the FPO’s own grade rules such as moisture or size, and bagged into lots. The farmer gets a slip with weight, grade and rate. Lots are tracked through storage, drying or sorting to the buyer, with sale price and buyer details. Payments to members follow the FPO’s rules, such as an advance on delivery and the balance after sale.
Solved in your appMany dairies sell cattle feed and FPOs run input shops. Stock is kept by batch with manufacturer, batch number and expiry, which matters for seed and pesticide. Members can buy on credit against their milk or produce payments, within limits the board sets. Sales of subsidised fertiliser still go through the government PoS device with Aadhaar authentication; our system records the same sale for stock and the member’s account. Licence numbers for each product type and their renewal dates are kept, and products are sold only from the shop holding the right licence.
Solved in your appField staff send crop or animal advisories by village, crop or animal type, by WhatsApp or app, in Marathi or Hindi. Each batch of milk or produce can be traced back to the centres, routes and farmers it came from, which buyers and processors increasingly ask for. Board members see collections, quality trends, payments made on time, loans outstanding, input sales and margins by centre. The auditor gets ledgers as a Tally export, so the year-end audit works from the same figures.
Solved in your appTell us how many centres and farmers you run, which analysers and scales you use and how you pay today. We will tell you which module to set up first.
Some of these are central rules and some are state decisions. Your co-operative bye-laws, your dairy’s rules and your adviser decide how they apply to you.
| Term or rule | 1What it means | 2How the software handles it |
|---|---|---|
| Fat, SNF and rate charts | Milk is paid by quality: fat and solids-not-fat (SNF) measured by an analyser. The dairy sets a chart with a base rate for a standard fat and SNF and additions or deductions per tenth of a point, separately for cow and buffalo milk. | Charts are versioned with start dates and shifts. Each pouring stores the reading, the chart used and the rate, so any bill can be explained later. |
| State minimum prices and subsidies | Maharashtra has at times set a minimum price for cow milk at a standard 3.5 fat and 8.5 SNF, and in 2024 ran a per-litre subsidy paid by direct benefit transfer to farmers supplying co-operative and private dairies. Schemes change, so check the current government resolution. | Prices paid can be compared with any minimum you enter, and farmer-wise litres, quality and bank details export in the format a scheme asks for. |
| FSSAI registration or licence | Milk collection, chilling and processing are food businesses. Small collection is registered; larger units need a state or central licence, based on litres handled per day. Applications go through FoSCoS, with the capacity of chilling and cooling centres. | Each centre, BMC and plant holds its FSSAI number, category, capacity and renewal date, with reminders. |
| Weighing scales and Legal Metrology | Scales used for buying milk or produce are weights and measures used in trade, and are to be verified and stamped under Legal Metrology rules. | Each scale’s verification date is recorded per centre, with a reminder before it falls due. The software reads the scale; it does not replace verification. |
| GST on milk and dairy products | Fresh milk is exempt. From 22 September 2025, UHT milk and pre-packaged labelled paneer moved to nil GST, and butter, ghee and cheese to 5%, as announced by the government. | HSN codes and rates are set per product with an effective date, so a dairy that also sells products bills them correctly. |
| Agri-input dealer licences | Selling fertiliser needs authorisation under the Fertiliser (Control) Order 1985, seed under the Seeds Act 1966 and Seeds (Control) Order 1983, and pesticides a licence under the Insecticides Act 1968 and Rules 1971. An FPO selling inputs to members needs them too. | Products are tagged by type and sold only from shops holding the matching licence, with licence numbers and renewal dates on file. |
| Subsidised fertiliser through PoS | Subsidised fertilisers are sold to farmers through a PoS device with Aadhaar authentication, and sales are recorded in the government’s fertiliser management system. | The PoS sale stays on the government device. Our system records the same sale for stock and the member account, and flags mismatches. |
| FPOs as producer companies or co-operatives | Most FPOs are registered as producer companies under the Companies Act or as co-operatives under state law. Each has its own rules for members, shares, board meetings and audit, and many are supported under the central scheme for forming and promoting 10,000 FPOs. | Member, share and board records follow your form of registration, and reports are shaped for your auditor and your promoting agency. |
| AgriStack Farmer ID | A farmer ID being created under the national AgriStack programme and used in some state schemes, including on Maharashtra’s DBT portal. | An optional Farmer ID field on each member record, captured with consent, to help with scheme paperwork. |
| Farmers’ personal data | Names, phone numbers, bank accounts, Aadhaar details and land records are personal data under the DPDP Act 2023. Aadhaar numbers also have their own rules on storage and display. | Consent at enrolment, Aadhaar masked on screens, access by role, and logs of every export. |
We have taken these points from government releases and portals, FSSAI documents and reputable agriculture and tax publications. State milk prices and subsidy schemes change often, and rules differ between co-operatives, private dairies and FPOs. Confirm every point with your dairy’s or FPO’s adviser, auditor or the relevant department before it goes into the software. We set the rules you approve; we do not decide them.
Many dairies already use something. There are milk collection apps and PC programs from Indian vendors that read popular analysers and scales, print slips and make farmer bills, often at a low cost per centre. Larger dairies and unions use automatic milk collection systems supplied with hardware, and dairy ERPs for the plant. For FPOs there are farm management and procurement platforms, and many small FPOs run on Excel and Tally. These products change often, so compare their current versions with your own needs.
For a single society or a small private dairy with a few centres, a ready-made milk collection app that works with your analyser is usually the right choice, and we will say so. Check that it works offline, reads your exact analyser and scale models, handles your rate charts and deductions, sends slips to farmers, and lets you export all your data.
A platform of your own makes sense when the joins matter: a dairy with dozens of centres, its own BMCs and plant, and a cattle feed business on credit; a private dairy that wants its own farmer app and brand to keep farmers loyal; an FPO with procurement, an input shop and buyer sales in one place; or a group that wants traceability from village to buyer. In those cases we build the joins, and link to the hardware and Tally you already run. Our guide on custom software vs off-the-shelf covers the trade-off.
A plain comparison. The right answer depends on your number of centres, farmers and businesses under one roof.
| Factor | 1Registers and Excel | 2Ready-made milk collection or FPO app | 3Own platform for centres, plant, inputs and farmers |
|---|---|---|---|
| Best for | A single small centre | Single societies, small dairies and FPOs | Multi-centre dairies, private dairies with a brand, FPOs with input shops |
| Fat and SNF capture | Read and written by hand | Read from the analyser in most products | Read from the analyser, with manual entry only with a reason |
| Rate charts | Paper chart at the centre | Supported, check your rules | Versioned charts pushed to every centre with start dates |
| Deductions and credit | Worked out by hand | Basic deductions | Feed, loans, inputs and scheme recoveries in your order |
| Route and plant losses | Not tracked | Sometimes | Per truck and per route, quantity and quality |
| Farmer app and brand | None | Vendor’s app if any | Your own app in Marathi or Hindi |
| Time to start | Already running | Days to weeks | Weeks to months, in phases |
We mention product types rather than brands, because features change often. Check each vendor’s current offering directly.
Each can be worked out from data the platform already holds.
Litres collected per shift and per day, by centre and milk type, against the same period last year. A centre losing litres while others grow usually means farmers are moving to another dairy nearby. Visit before it spreads.
Solved in your appWeighted average fat and SNF of milk collected, by centre and season. A sudden drop at one centre can mean adulteration, an analyser that needs calibration, or a change in feed. Each needs a different response.
Solved in your appLitres and fat dispatched from centres against litres and fat received at the BMC or plant, per route. Small differences are normal. A route that always loses more needs checking.
Solved in your appFarmer bills paid on or before the due date of each cycle, divided by bills due, and the number of failed bank transfers. Late payment is the fastest way to lose farmers to a competitor.
Solved in your appFarmers who poured at least once in each week of the month, and those who stopped. Ask why each regular farmer stopped; the answer is usually rate, payment delay or a dispute over a reading.
Solved in your appCattle feed, input credit and advances outstanding, against members’ expected payments in the next cycle. Credit that grows faster than milk or produce supply is a risk for the society.
Solved in your appPrice paid to members for each grade against the market price on the same day, such as the mandi or e-NAM rate. Members compare, so the board should compare first.
Solved in your appSales minus purchase cost by product group, and stock close to expiry for seed and pesticide. Expired stock cannot be sold and must be handled as the rules require.
Solved in your appSay you run a private dairy near Sangamner with twelve village collection centres, two bulk milk coolers and about 2,400 farmers. The numbers here are only to show the flow. At 6:10 am a farmer pours 9.2 kg of cow milk at Centre 4. The scale sends the weight and the analyser sends fat 4.1 and SNF 8.4 to the tablet. The app converts to litres using your set factor, picks the rate from this period’s cow milk chart, and prints a slip. The farmer gets the same slip on WhatsApp in Marathi before he reaches his bike.
At 8:15 am the centre closes the shift. The truck takes 1,840 litres to BMC 1, where the receipt shows a slightly lower quantity and fat, within your allowed range. At 11 am the dairy office issues a new buffalo milk chart from the next morning shift; every centre gets it, and today’s pourings keep the old rate. A farmer at Centre 9 calls to say his fat looks low. The operator shows him the reading logged from the analyser, and the field officer arranges a check of the analyser’s calibration that week.
On day ten, bills are built for every farmer from the pourings. Cattle feed taken on credit, a loan instalment and the monthly insurance premium are deducted in the order your rules set. The bank file goes to the bank, and 14 transfers fail because of closed accounts. The office calls those farmers to update their details. Each farmer sees his bill in the app or on WhatsApp, with each deduction explained.
The owner’s screen shows litres by centre against last year, average fat and SNF trends, route losses, credit outstanding, and 31 farmers who stopped pouring this month. Centre 7 has lost the most, so the field officer visits and finds that a competing dairy opened nearby with a higher rate. The board now decides with facts, not rumours. If government asks for farmer-wise data for a subsidy scheme, the export is ready in minutes.
We meet the office, a few centre operators and the board to write down rate charts, deduction order, payment cycle, credit limits and grading rules. We list every analyser and scale model at each centre and test whether it can send data.
Farmer or member records are cleaned: codes, names, villages, bank accounts, shares and opening balances for feed and loans. The office and auditor sign off opening balances, because the system will carry forward whatever it is given.
Two centres go live with the collection app, one with good network and one without. Operators are trained at the centre in Marathi or Hindi, during and between shifts. The register continues in parallel and is compared every day.
One full bill cycle is run in the new system and the old way, farmer by farmer. Every difference is traced and fixed before farmers see a bill from the new system.
Remaining centres go live in batches, with dispatch and receipt at BMCs and the plant. Route reconciliation starts. The farmer app and WhatsApp slips are introduced at gram sabha-style meetings at each centre.
Cattle feed and input shop, FPO procurement and grading, and advisory messages go live. Credit against payments is switched on with the limits the board approved.
Before sign-off we check rates, deductions, bank files, offline sync, role access and exports with your team and auditor. Maintenance and support continues after launch, including rate chart changes and new schemes.
Send us your number of centres, farmers and analysers, and the software you are considering. We will tell you whether a ready app fits or a platform of your own is worth it.
We quote after understanding your dairy or FPO, because two dairies with the same daily litres can need very different things. A website for an FPO or dairy brand with member sign-up and product pages is a small project. A milk collection app with analyser and scale link, rate charts, bills, deductions, bank files and WhatsApp slips is a medium one. A full platform with many centres, BMC and plant reconciliation, a farmer app, a cattle feed or input shop on credit, FPO procurement and traceability is a large one.
The cost goes up with the number of centres, the variety of analyser and scale models to read, how complex your rate charts and deductions are, the number of businesses under one roof such as milk, feed, inputs and produce, and how much member data must be cleaned. It comes down if you start with collection and bills at a few centres, then add the farmer app, routes and inputs once the bills are trusted.
Timelines: a website takes 3-5 weeks. A milk collection and billing system for a pilot set of centres takes 2-3 months, including a bill cycle in parallel. A full platform across centres, plant, inputs and farmers runs 4-6 months in phases. See custom software development and Android app development for how we build.
Do not switch bills to the new system before one full cycle matches the old method farmer by farmer. One wrong bill spreads through the village faster than any good news.
Do not allow free manual entry of fat and SNF. If operators can type readings, farmers will suspect they do. Read from the analyser, allow manual entry only with a reason, and show the log when asked.
Do not forget the centre with no network. Test offline work at your weakest centre before you buy or build anything. And do not launch the farmer app without meetings at each centre. Farmers trust a person they know more than a notification.
And if you run one society or a small dairy with a few centres and simple charts, a ready-made milk collection app will do. Build when the joins between centres, plant, feed, inputs and farmers are where you lose money and trust.
Ask us on WhatsApp. A real person from our Navi Mumbai team replies.
Ask on WhatsAppFor a single society or a small dairy, a ready-made milk collection app that reads your analyser and scale, works offline and makes bills is usually enough. A platform of your own makes sense for multi-centre dairies, private dairies with their own brand, and businesses that also run feed, inputs or procurement.
Usually yes. Most electronic milk analysers and scales send readings over a cable or Bluetooth. We list each model at your centres and test it before promising. Manual entry stays possible, but only with a reason, and it is logged.
Most dairies use a chart with a base rate for a standard fat and SNF, and additions or deductions for each tenth of a point, separately for cow and buffalo milk. Some use a two-axis formula. The software stores your chart with start dates and shows the rate on every slip.
Yes. It works through the whole shift offline on a battery-backed tablet or phone, prints slips, and syncs when the network returns. We test at your weakest centre before rollout.
Yes. Each pouring slip and each bill can go by WhatsApp or SMS in Marathi or Hindi, with litres, fat, SNF, rate, amount and every deduction. Farmers who install the app also see their passbook and history.
Yes. Feed and inputs taken on credit, loan or advance instalments, insurance and share capital are deducted in the order your rules set, and each one appears on the farmer’s bill. Credit limits can be set against expected payments.
Milk collection, chilling and processing are food businesses. Small collection is registered, and larger units need a state or central licence based on litres handled per day. Check your category on FoSCoS or with your adviser; the software keeps each centre’s number and renewal date.
Fresh milk is exempt. From 22 September 2025, UHT milk and pre-packaged labelled paneer moved to nil GST, and butter, ghee and cheese to 5%, as announced by the government. Ask your CA about the products you sell; the software sets rates per product with dates.
Maharashtra has run per-litre subsidy schemes for cow milk paid directly to farmers, with conditions on the price paid and quality. When a scheme asks for farmer-wise litres, quality and bank details, the data can be exported in the format required. Check the current government resolution for the rules.
Yes. Members, procurement with weight and grade, lots, buyer sales, and an input shop with batch and expiry tracking can run on one platform, with input credit set against members’ produce payments.
Generally, fertiliser needs authorisation under the Fertiliser (Control) Order 1985, seed a licence under the Seeds Act and Seeds (Control) Order, and pesticides a licence under the Insecticides Act and Rules. Details differ by state, so ask your district agriculture office. The software sells each product only from a shop holding the matching licence.
Yes. Each batch is linked to the centres, routes and farmers it came from, with quality readings at each step. Buyers and processors increasingly ask for this.
Farmer data is personal data under the DPDP Act 2023, and Aadhaar has its own rules. We capture consent at enrolment, mask Aadhaar on screens, limit access by role so a centre operator sees only what the shift needs, and log every export.
A milk collection and billing system for a pilot set of centres takes 2-3 months, including one bill cycle in parallel. A full platform across centres, plant, inputs and the farmer app takes 4-6 months in phases.
Talk to our Navi Mumbai team about your centres, analysers, rate charts and farmers. We will give you a clear plan, an honest view on ready-made software, and a price.
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