It is common knowledge that there is a need to promote agriculture marketing infrastructure projects for reducing the involvement of intermediates and minimizing post-harvest losses. A robust agriculture marketing infrastructure will ensure better remuneration to farmers and supply of better quality products to consumers and processing industries. During the XII plan period, the estimated investment for marketing infrastructure and value chain development was $ 8.61 billion .
To address this need, the Department of Agriculture and Cooperation (DAC), Govt. of India has introduced the Agricultural Marketing Infrastructure (AMI) Scheme by merging the earlier GrameenBhandaranYojana (GBY) and the Scheme for Development/Strengthening of Agricultural Marketing Infrastructure, Grading and Standardization (AMIGS).