Meet Deputy Commissioner Mr. Errol Chichester

At a very early age, Errol Chichester had an interest in agriculture. Even before his teens, he was engaged in planting and caring for his own vegetable garden.
He enrolled in the University of the Virgin Islands (then College of the Virgin Islands) Agriculture program. He received an Associ-ate‟s Degree in Agriculture and earned a Bachelor‟s Degree in Agriculture from the University of Florida.

Mr. Chichester returned to the Virgin Islands in 1986 and began his agricultural profession at the University of the Virgin Islands St. Croix Campus, as an Extension Agent with the Cooperative Extension Service.

In 1988, he moved to the Virgin Islands De-partment of Agriculture as the Horticulturist, with the responsibility of supervising the production of fruit trees and vegetable seed-lings for sale to farmers and gardeners. Un-der his leadership, the Department moved from a traditional system of vegetable seed-ling production in open fields to a green-house system with automatic irrigation. This increased the quality and quantity of seed-lings available to the public, stimulating a renewed interest in vegetable production.

In 2004, Mr. Chichester was promoted to Di-rector of Horticulture and Agronomy. In March of 2007, Governor John P. de Jongh appointed him as the Deputy Commissioner of Agriculture.
He holds member-ships and positions in numerous organiza-tions including Presi-dent of the St. Croix Hibiscus Society, Vice President of the St. Croix Bonsai So-ciety, past Secretary and member of the Urban & Community Forestry Council, past Vice President and member of the Resource Conservation & Development Coun-cil, past President of the St. George Village Botanical Garden, and member of the Carib-bean Food Crop Society.

Mr. Chichester has also served as the Chairper-son of the USDA Farm Service Agency (FSA), member of Virgin Islands Agriculture and Food Fair Board and Director of the Crop Ex-hibit, and Chairperson of the Antilitter and Beautification Commission. He is also a Certi-fied PADI diver and one of the Certified Ar-borists in the VI. His many other interests in-cludes long distance running, biking, diving, and most recently, bee keeping.

Mr. Chichester co-hosts the Department‟s call-in radio program, “Fresh From the Farm.”
He is married to Clara Chichester and has three children—Jason, Kishma, and Tahirah.