As a part of the land-grant university system, the department has joint research, teaching, and service responsibilities with the  Louisiana State University Agricultural Center and Louisiana State University that enable it to address relevant issues pertaining to agriculture, economics, natural resources, and rural/community development in Louisiana, the nation, and the world. These joint research and extension components are instrumental in financially supporting the department’s MS and PhD programs, as well as in providing problem-solving research opportunities for graduate students. Graduate programs are an integral component of the department’s basic and applied research programs. The skills and research interests of the faculty provide a wide range of opportunities for graduate research projects. Interdisciplinary and regional research programs further expand the scope of research areas available to graduate students. In addition to the traditional programs in production, management, and marketing, departmental research includes agribusiness management, consumer economics, quantitative methods, environmental and natural resource management, international marketing and trade, and rural/community development.

The PhD program in Agricultural Economics is offered by the Louisiana State University.

The departmental-level academic course plan for each student will be developed in consultation with and approved by the student’s graduate advisory committee. The committee will include the student’s major advisor and at least two additional members of the graduate faculty from the Department of Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness, such that the requirements of the Louisiana State University Graduate School for graduate committees are satisfied.

The dissertation-based degree requires 57 hours of credit at the graduate level, including a maximum of 12 hours of credit for the dissertation project.