James Simon serves as principal investigator (with Rutgers’ Daniel Hoffman as co-PI) on a USAID program linking horticulture and African indigenous vegetables (AIVs), in South African Development Community countries, to income-generation for rural populations and improvement of nutrition by increasing consumption of AIVs.

Simon also works in other African countries on botanicals for the same intended outcomes and on developing new urban sac gardens to improve access and availability to fresh AIVs in slums in Nairobi and Eldoret, Kenya. Simon, Hoffman (as PI), and others are working on a Rutgers Busch grant linking direct consumption of authenticated and iron-rich amaranth to improved human nutrition in a pilot clinical setting in Kenya.

Simon has invented and is focused on identifying natural bioactive insect repellents (against mosquitoes, ticks, and other animal and insect pests) to be as effective as DEET, and he has led major programs in income-generation for small holder farmers as a means to feed themselves.

His work takes place in Ghana, Kenya, Liberia, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Zambia. Learn more about Simon’s work.