Tahirou Abdoulaye (Ph.D.) is an Agricultural Economist and project manager for CSAT Niger and Mali based in Bamako, Mali. He is currently Director for IITA Sahel Africa hub. His academic qualifications include a B.Sc. in economics (University of Niamey, Niger) and M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in agricultural economics (Purdue University, USA). He has been involved in evaluation and impact assessment of several projects mainly in West Africa and has produced papers on impact assessment of research activities in several African countries, including Niger, Ghana, Mali, Senegal, Nigeria, and Benin. His research work covers a wide range of rural economic issues including seed systems, farm level efficiency and also technology evaluation and transfer. His more recent research interest focuses on innovation systems and how they can help increase technology uptake by smallholder farmers.