Shashidhara Kolavalli is a Senior Research Fellow and Leader of the Ghana Strategy Support Program in the Development Strategy and Governance Division. An agricultural economist with a Ph. D. from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign began his career as an agricultural extension agent in India. He was on the faculty of the Indian institute of Management, Ahmedabad and served as a resource economist at the International Crop Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics, Hyderabad India. He joined IFPRI in 2006 after consulting independently for a few years, working mostly for the World Bank in countries in east and southern Africa.

He has worked on participatory approaches to management of natural resources, poverty reduction and country strategies and reforms of market institutions. His current interests are agricultural and economic transformation, governance and capacity.