The Smallholder Farmers Alliance (SFA) mourns the passing of Rémillot Léveillé (1929 – 2025), a highly respected agronomist who served as a trusted advisor when we set out to reintroduce cotton to Haiti.
Rémillot first led the transformation of Haiti’s cotton production when he introduced high-yield upland cotton varieties in the mid-1950s. Once a marginal crop, cotton soon became the country’s fourth largest agricultural export. Though it had disappeared by the 1990s for a variety of reasons, Rémillot retained encyclopedic knowledge of cotton cultivation that he would share with us many years later.
| When the SFA set out to reintroduce cotton in 2016, our first step was to reach out to Rémillot for guidance. He began by helping us draft a feasibility study, then assisted the following year in designing a field trial of cotton varieties sourced from several countries. A particularly poignant moment came when Rémillot took part in a ceremonial cotton seed planting to officially launch that field trial (photo above). We were in a rural area near Gonaïves, less than a mile from where, in 1954, Rémillot had conducted his own field trial that led to revolutionizing cotton production throughout the country. The SFA was able to begin exporting cotton in 2019, but we too saw this crop disappear once again. Yet our farmer members still reall what they learned from Rémillot and hope cotton might one day return. When it does, his is the name that will forever be known as the ‘father of cotton’ in Haiti. The funeral for Marie Rémillot Léveillé will be held in Montreal this Friday, January 23rd. |
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| Rémillot Léveillé (left) supervising a cotton field trial near Gonaïves in 1954. Regards, |
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