Bishop Slams $90K Agriculture Consultancy
Bishop John Cline has criticised the government for paying a $90,000-a-year agriculture and fisheries consultant while seeing no visible improvement in local food production. He urged greater accountability, saying funds should be redirected to directly support farmers and expand domestic production.
Bishop John Cline has accused the Virgin Islands government of poor value for money after it engaged an agriculture and fisheries consultant at an annual cost of about $90,000 without producing visible gains for local food production. Speaking on JTV’s The Big Story, the pastor and businessman said the consultancy — awarded in 2023 under the Ministry of Environment, Natural Resources and Climate Change to develop a national food security strategy and provide technical guidance to farmers — has produced little publicly evident progress. “I think this government is paying someone, I don’t care to mention his name, $90,000 a year for a consultancy contract,” Cline said. “For agriculture and fishery.
And we haven’t really seen any significant moves.” He later suggested the same money could be described as $100,000 and asked why it was not used to empower farmers directly. Cline, who leased three acres at Paraquita Bay to grow cash crops, said his efforts to develop greenhouse farming were stalled by bureaucracy and a lack of political will.
He argued that direct investment in farmers’ inputs, infrastructure and access to land would deliver more tangible results for food security than an expensive consultancy. The ministerial appointment was described at the time as part of a push to strengthen the territory’s food security framework, but public reporting of deliverables, timelines or implementation outcomes has been limited.
That absence of clear public evidence of progress is central to Cline’s criticism. He also broadened his critique to the government’s fiscal record, noting that the Virgin Islands Party administration had about $3.2 billion to spend over the last eight years. “Have we gotten value for money?
Look around,” Cline said in a Facebook live update, urging residents to demand accountability and to elect leaders who are fiscally responsible. For residents who depend on reliable access to food and for farmers who seek support, the debate highlights longstanding concerns in the BVI: heavy reliance on imports, the need to expand domestic production, and the practical barriers local growers face — from access to land to inputs, water and technical support.
Local stakeholders and farmers may now look for greater transparency from the ministry on the consultancy’s outputs and any implementation plan. Bishop Cline’s call adds pressure on elected officials to show measurable progress in strengthening local agriculture or to justify expenditure on external advisers.
Primary source: BVI News