The predecessor of the department was the major of Agricultural Economics Management of the former Shanghai Agricultural School in 1983. In 2002, the Department of Business Tourism Management was established at SHAFC, and it was officially renamed the Department of Agricultural Economics and Management in 2013.

The department adheres to the campus culture “Devoting to the Agriculture all the Way” and sticks to the college principle of “Serving the agriculture with its own unique characteristics”, takes the training of agricultural and rural management talents, management talents and new professional farmers as its own responsibility. The department has four majors, namely Agricultural Economic Management, Leisure Agriculture, Tourism Management, and Business Management. The setting of those majors follows the education and teaching rules of vocational education, meets the market needs, takes students' employment as the orientation, attaches importance to practical teaching, and focuses on cultivating students' vocational skills. The department is committed to make its contributions to the development of the agriculture, rural areas and farmers of Shanghai and the nation.

At present, the department has 27 faculty members, including 5 teachers with senior titles, 14 teachers with intermediate titles, 19 dual-qualified teachers. 23 of the teachers have master’s degrees and the number of the teachers below 45 years old is 23. The teaching team is full of vigor, innovation and dedication. It actively explores the talent training mode of dual subject, order-based and modern apprenticeship. The department now has a municipal teaching team (the team of the Agricultural Economics and Management) and an Award of Shanghai Gardener. The Party branch of the department of Agriculture and Economics was selected as the cultivation branch of the Party Branch Construction Demonstration Site of the Municipal Education and Health Work Party Committee System.

There are currently 8 professional training rooms including the Comprehensive Training Room for the Management of the Three Capitals in Rural Areas, the Comprehensive Training Room for Agricultural Product Marketing, and the Simulation Training Room for Tour Guides, as well as the Comprehensive Training Room for the Management of New Rural Economic Organizations outside the school, which provides practical teaching for students.

Teachers of the department actively participate in scientific research. In the past five years, teachers of the department have presided over 14 college-level excellent courses (including those under construction); presided over 34 various teaching and scientific research projects, 13 projects above the municipal level, including: 2 research projects on decision-making consultation of the Shanghai Municipal People's Government; 1 project of the Education Commission; 8 textbooks; published more than 70 papers in various academic journals, including 25 core papers and 3 ISSCI papers. They actively participated in social services, and formed an agricultural economic service team to carry out new professional farmers training and technical services guidance. The team has trained more than 1,000 new professional farmers within three years.

The department will continue to adhere to the student-oriented concept, work hard in professional construction, curriculum reform, teaching staff construction, training base construction, student quality education, and scientific research. All the faculty members of the department are striving for innovation and breakthroughs to ensure that all aspects of work are fully developed.