New Delhi : Minister for food processing industries on Wednesday inaugurated an e-portal that aims to bring together farmers, suppliers and customers. The portal, called www.e-freshindia.com, had been designed by a private company and aimed to empower Indian agriculture, said an official press release. Based on a food chain concept, it creates connectivity between the suppliers and the buyers through a trading platform.

"The portal will help increase farmers' income through increased agricultural productivity. It will especially focus on North-Eastern states. Initially available in English and Hindi, soon Marathi, Telugu, Gujarati, Kannada, Tamil and Bengali versions would also be available," the release said.

Inaugurating the portal, the minister urged upon the portal operators to take this facility to the panchayats also as the farmer functions only through panchayats. He suggested that the e-portal should also contain information regarding the connectivity of the farmer to the market and the cold chain available to him. "We are wasting Rs 30,000 crore of agriculture produce every year because the farmers do not have access to information,: Sahai said.