The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board is buying a portfolio of Saskatchewan farms, with the $128-million purchase of Assiniboia Farmland LP.

Farmland investments such as the new ACM Permanent Crop Fund can attract institutions by combining social responsibility and commercial promise.

The Vermont Pension Investment Committee has invested $100 million in the Nuveen Global Farmland Fund, which aims to make farmland acquisitions averaging $20m across the US, Australia, New Zealand, Brazil, Poland, Romania and Chile.

The $128-million deal that saw Canada Pension Plan acquire 46,500 hectares of Saskatchewan farmland was "wrong, both legally and morally," says Rick Swenson, leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of Saskatchewan.

UNCTAD believes pension funds, with their apparent focus on reputation, accountability, and the long term, could set new best-practice standards as they join the farmland investment trend.

Reporting by Agência Pública has revealed how investors including U.S. pension funds and an Argentine agribusiness giant may be linked to illegal land deals and deforestation in Brazil’s Cerrado region.

Farmland and timberland are now separate asset classes, the UK's Pension Protection Fund has asserted in its revised investment principles.

Une trentaine d’organisations accusent des banques de soutenir le Groupe Bolloré par leurs concours financiers et leur silence, face aux accusations de violations des droits humains dénoncés par le Conseil d’Éthique du Fonds de pension norvégien dans les plantations de sa filiale, la Société financière des Caoutchoucs (Socfin), au Cameroun.

Farmland grabs by US companies and pension funds are being ignored as appropriators prioritise keeping Chinese interests in check, critics say

"All of a sudden the world is waking up and saying, 'Wow, emerging markets, food security... this asset class is going to really perform in the medium term -- the next 8-20 years,'" says new convert James Howard, manager of the Futuregrowth Agri-Fund

The Warakirri Diversified Agriculture Fund invests in agricultural assets on behalf of Australian, Canadian and European pension funds, as well as high net-worth individuals and private family offices.

Investment managers in the US report rising interest from pension schemes and retail investors in funds that buy and run farmland in developed countries.

Today's emerging new farm owners are private equity fund managers, specialised farmland fund operators, hedge funds, pension funds, big banks and the like.

PSP, one of Canada's largest pension investment managers, now adds a further 40,000 hectares to its large farmland holdings in New South Wales.

The Covid-19 pandemic and a general trend towards ESG investing are pushing more institutional investors, particularly pension funds, to look more closely at farmland investments.

Posco International’s new zero deforestation policy comes after years of pressure from NGOs and the divestment of its shares by Dutch and Norwegian pension funds.

Pension funds try to adopt a sustainability perspective when investing in farmland abroad, but there is not much consensus on what it means and how to measure it.

Major farmland investors such as banks and pension funds must stop facilitating land grabs, civil society groups on the eve of a global farmland investment conference in London on December 3-5, have said.

In 2013, mammoth US investment company TIAA-CREF gave $5 million to the University of Illinois to fund a research center, branded with the company’s name, that would explore the financial niche of farmland investment.

Canadian investors - particularly pension funds - have led the way in changing Australian city money attitudes to agriculture.

Many of the world’s biggest pension funds as well as family offices of wealthy individuals –looking for diversification and steady returns in times of market volatility– have been pouring money into farmlands, writes Kelvins Tan

Canada’s Public Sector Pension Investment Board has made another move to deepen its presence in Australian agriculture, taking full ownership of the largest irrigated farmer in Australia.

This year Rabo Farm's first fund, with a size of € 315 million, will be fully subscribed, and a new fund, the Rabo Farm Europe Fund II, will be launched.

Mark Wiseman, chief executive of the $A170 billion fund, will visit Australia this month amid the group’s expanding portfolio of interests across the Tasman.

SLC Agricola, the Brazil farm operator with large ambitions in farmland acquisition, sealed a $239m cash injection from UK fund manager Valiance Asset Management for a business aimed at turning scrub into "high-quality" farms.

WSIB has allocated a total of $400 million into a separate account with UBS Farmland Investors and a Homestead Capital USA Farmland Fund IV.

Daybreak Cropping, a partnership between Warakirri Asset Management and the Canadian Public Sector Pension Investment Board, paid $97 million for the 22,000 ha broadacre farm.

Foreign companies, pension funds and sovereign wealth funds are ready and willing to invest in the Australian farm sector, but many parts of the industry are still not investment-ready.

Interest in farming from a new class of institutional investors — including hedge, endowment, pension, private equity and sovereign wealth funds — has surged.

Late on Wednesday night an Australian trust backed by Swiss, Danish and US fund managers agreed to pay more than $200 million for 12,000 hectares of almond groves in northern Victoria.