The origins of College of Economics and Management extend back to the discipline of Agricultural Economics Education in the College of Agriculture in National Sun Yat-sen University and the College of Agriculture in Private Lingnan University. After the nationwide academic organization readjustment of institutions of higher education in 1952, the Department of Agronomy in South China Agricultural College stopped recruiting Agricultural Economics majors. Afterwards, upon the efforts and active requirements from all the teachers of the Teaching and Research Group of the Agricultural Economics, Agricultural Economics resumed enrollment in 1964. During the Cultural Revolution, Agricultural Economics stopped enrollment, but enrollment resumed in 1979. The Department of Agricultural Economics was established in 1982, and then was approved by the Ministry of Agriculture as the College of Economics and Trade in 1992. It was renamed College of Economics and Management in May 2004.

Agricultural Economics and Management is a national key discipline, while Agricultural and Forestry Economics &Management is a Guangdong key discipline (Summit-climbing Discipline) and Finance is a Guangdong provincial characteristic key discipline. The College has 1 first-level doctoral program, 5 second-level doctoral programs, 3 first-level master's programs, 11 second-level academic master's programs, 3 professional master's programs, and 10 undergraduate programs. There are 2 Guangdong provincial key research centers for Humanities and Social Sciences and 7 university-level research centers.

There are 147 faculty and staff members in CEM, including 119 professional teachers (90% with PhD), 43 professors, 51 associate professors, 24 doctoral supervisors, 1 member of the Discipline Appraisal Group of the Academic Degree Committee of the State Council, 1 distinguished professor under the Ministry of Education's Changjiang Scholar's Award Program, 1 member of the Top 10,000 Young Talents Program under the Central Organization Department, 2 distinguished professors in Guangdong colleges and universities, 1 Guangdong distinguished Social Sciences Master, 6 members of the Guangdong's Thousand, Hundred, Ten Projects, 3 members of  Guangdong Outstanding Teachers, and 3 Guangdong Higher Education Institutions Outstanding Young Teachers. In recent five years, CEM has trained 67 PhD graduates, 2325 postgraduates (including Agricultural Extension postgraduates) and 5508 undergraduates.

In recent five years, the CEM faculty has chaired and completed more than 52 majors, key or general projects of National Natural Science Foundation, National Social Science Foundation, Changjiang Scholar Innovative Team Support Plan and so on. The total funding surpassed 45 million RMB. There are more than 300 academic papers published in SCI/SSCI and other domestic core academic journals. More than 30 research results were remarked by central and provincial leaders.