View source for Société Haitiano-Américaine de Développement Agricole

{{Short description|Joint agricultural venture between the United States of America and Haiti}}
The '''Société Haïtiano-Américane de Développement Agricole''', also known as '''SHADA''', was a joint venture between the [[United States of America]] and [[Haiti]] to expand wartime production of rubber in the Haitian countryside. This program was established in 1941 and ran until it was largely discontinued in 1944.<ref name=red>Smith, Matthew J. ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=ByLYonKhQkEC&q=red+and+black+haiti Red & Black in Haiti: Radicalism, Conflict, and Political Change, 1934–1957].'' Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2009.</ref>
==Background==
During the outbreak of [[World War II]], an axis blockade cut off American rubber supplies from [[British Malaya|Malaya]] and the [[Dutch East Indies]]. In 1939, the [[United States Department of Agriculture]] began a program to develop rubber production in the tropical Americas. Haitian president [[Sténio Vincent]] requested an agricultural advisor from  the United States, and on the recommendations of [[Thomas Barbour]] and [[David Fairchild]], [[Thomas A. Fennell]] was selected and was sent to Haiti.<ref name=edu>{{cite web|url=http://faculty.webster.edu/corbetre/haiti/misctopic/leftover/rubber.htm|title=Haitian Rubber Timeline|website=Webster University|author=Thomas D. Fennell|access-date=27 January 2021}}</ref> In 1940, [[Harold F. Loomis]] of the USDA conducted a rubber survey of Haiti, and the [[Ministry of Agriculture, Natural Resources and Rural Development (Haiti)|Haitian Ministry of Agriculture]] agreed to set up rubber experimental station. The USDA then sent [[Harley Harris Bartlett]] to bring ''[[Hevea brasiliensis]]'' plants from the [[Philippines]] to Haiti. In 1941, Bartlett successfully transported 4,800 rubber plants. The same year, [[Élie Lescot]] succeeded Vincent as president of Haiti.<ref name=red></ref>
==History==
===Establishment===
The Lescot administration believed that large scale rubber production in Haiti would stimulate the economy. In 1941, the [[Export–Import Bank of the United States|Export-Import Bank]] in Washington granted $5 million for the development of rubber plantations in Haiti. A company was established, named the Société Haïtiano-Américane de Développement Agricole. Thomas Fennell was brought on as president and general manager with Haitian Minister of Agriculture [[Jean-Joseph Maurice Dartigue|Maurice Dartigue]] serving as vice president.<ref name=red></ref> In addition to rubber production, the initial plan also involved increasing production of bananas and other food crops, oil producing crops, spices, medicinal plants, and plants useful for textiles.<ref>{{cite journal |title=Arrangement Between the United States and Haiti Regarding the Development of Haitian Agriculture and Economy |journal=Foreign Relations of the United States Diplomatic Papers, 1941, the American Republics |date=5 May 1941 |volume=VII |page=366 |url=https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1941v07/pg_366 |access-date=27 January 2021|publisher=Office of the Historian}}</ref> SHADA was granted a 50 year lease on 150,000 acres of land, along with a 50 year monopoly on the export of all natural rubber from Haiti. Although financed and supported by the US, the Haitian government retained 100% of SHADA stock.<ref name=edu></ref>
===Early years===
In addition to rubber production, SHADA also exploited natural timber resources. 75,000 hectares of land were acquired by the company for the exploitation of timber.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Casimir |first1=Jean |title=La Conception de SHADA |url=http://islandluminous.fiu.edu/french/part09-slide09.html |website=Florida International University |publisher=Digital Library of the Caribbean |access-date=27 January 2021}}</ref> Species such as ''[[Haematoxylon campechianum]]'' were harvested by SHADA in areas such as the [[Forêt des Pins]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Forests and the forestry sector - Haiti |url=http://www.fao.org/forestry/country/57478/en/hti/ |website=Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations |access-date=27 January 2021 |date=March 2002}}</ref>
In 1942, SHADA switched focus from ''Hevea'' to ''[[Cryptostegia]]'' under contract of the US Rubber Reserve Company (later the US Rubber Development Corporation). An estimated 47,177 acres were cleared for the cultivation of the ''Cryptostegia'' vine in 1943. Farmers in Haiti's northern countryside were lured from food crop cultivation to meet increasing demand for rubber.<ref name=red></ref>
Lescot was a huge proponent for SHADA, believing the program was the solution to modernizing Haitian agriculture. However, the company began forcibly removing peasant families from Haiti's most arable tracts of land. Additionally, nearly a million fruit-bearing trees in [[Jérémie]] were cut down and peasant houses were invaded or razed. Dartigue was alarmed, and wrote to Fennell asking him to respect "the mentality and legitimate interests of the Haitian peasant and city-dwellers."<ref name=red></ref>
===Decline===
By 1944, it was clear that the program was failing. Yields did not meet expectations, and rubber exports were deemed insignificant. A severe drought from 1943-1944 further crippled the harvest. A US military report stated
"The worst thing that can be said of SHADA is that they are doing [their operations] at considerable expense to the American taxpayer and in a manner that does not command the respect of the Haitian people".<ref name=red></ref> The US government offered $175,000 as compensation to the 35,000 to 40,000 displaced peasant families after recommending the program's cancellation.<ref name=edu></ref>
In early 1944, The Rubber Development Corporation sent a delegation to cancel the ''Cryptostegia'' contract. Lescot feared SHADA's termination would add the burden of higher unemployment, as at its height over 90,000 people were employed by the company. His plea to continue operation until the end of the war was denied. A few months later, all ''Cryptostegia'' producing lands were razed and returned to the original owners, and Fennell resigned.
SHADA continued small scale production of [[sisal]] and ''Hevea'' under direction of J. W. McQueen.<ref name=red></ref> By 1953, the company was no longer in operation.<ref name=edu></ref>
==References==
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Haiti–United States relations]]
[[Category:Agriculture in Haiti]]