Why we built a WhatsApp bot instead of an API or a website
The average Indian milkman already spends 2-3 hours per day on WhatsApp — taking orders, sending bills, coordinating delivery. Asking them to "visit a website" or "open an app" to check today's milk rate is friction. Asking them to type a city name into a WhatsApp chat they already have open is friction-free. That is why this bot exists: it meets people where they already are.
Where the rates come from
Every morning at 6:30 AM IST, our data pipeline ingests milk procurement rates from 12 official sources:
- Amul — daily procurement price circular (Gujarat + 8 other states).
- Mother Dairy — NCR and eastern India retail feed.
- State federations: Sudha (Bihar), Nandini (Karnataka), Aavin (Tamil Nadu), Saras (Rajasthan), Verka (Punjab), Vita (Haryana), Milma (Kerala).
- Local dairy contacts — 40+ village collection centres across the country send us morning prices via WhatsApp.
- User submissions — verified and published after cross-check.
How accurate are the rates?
We publish the rate with ±5% accuracy for all covered cities. Within each city, real rates vary between dairies — what the bot gives is the "median quoted rate" from our sources. It is a reference number for negotiation, not a legally binding quote. For your own dairy's rate, always check with your federation or collection centre.
Other WhatsApp bot commands
menu— full list of commandscities— list of all supported citiestrend [city]— 30-day price chart for a cityalert [city]— subscribe to daily 7 AM alerts for a citystop— unsubscribe from all alerts and delete your datasubmit [city] [type] [rate]— submit a local ratehelp— quick start guide