Board of Directors—The group of individuals that govern the Center.

Center—The Agriculture Innovation Center to be established and operated by the grantees. It may or may not be an independent legal entity, but it must be independently governed in accordance with the requirements of this subpart.

Producer Services—Services to be provided by the Centers to agricultural producers. Producer Services consist of the following types of services:

Technical assistance, consisting of engineering services, applied research, Scale Production Assessments, and similar services, to enable the agricultural producers to establish businesses to produce Value-Added agricultural commodities or products;

Assistance in marketing, market development and business planning, including advisory services with respect to leveraging capital assets; and

Organizational, outreach and development assistance to increase the viability, growth and sustainability of businesses that produce Value-Added agricultural commodities or products.

Qualified Board of Directors—A Board of Directors that includes representatives from each of the following groups:

The two general agricultural organizations with the greatest number of members in the State in which the Center is located;

The State department of agriculture, or equivalent, of the State in which the Center is located; and

Entities representing the four highest grossing commodities produced in the State in which the Center is located, as determined on the basis of annual gross cash sales.

Scale Production Assessments—Studies that analyze facilities, including processing facilities, for potential Value-added activities in order to determine the size that optimizes construction and other cost efficiencies.