Major Pension Fund Invests in Farm Land
Friday, November 4th, 2011It is time to retire and you haven’t yet thought of how you are going to live after you leave your job? Well, it might be interesting for you to note that many pension fund managers have great plans of using pension funds to invest in farm land. With the current food crisis, pension managers are optimistic that the returns from farm land investments will be enormous. In the US for example, pension funds continue to juggle around $23 Trillion worth of assets. A hundred billion of these funds have been invested in commodities. Of the hundred billion, $5 to 15 billion have been spent on the purchase of agricultural land.
By the year 2015, the amount of pension funds spent on the purchase of land for agricultural purposes is expected to rise by almost double. This then, calls for accountability by all the stakeholders involved in the management of pension funds. In any case, pension funds are meant to benefit workers by allowing them to keep their money safe. In essence, there should be some sense of accountability when making decisions and strategies in regards to pension funds. For this reason, social movements and trade unions should be very watchful because pension funds can easily be used for land grabbing by the few individuals who careless about the retirees.
Due to the current financial crisis, pension systems across the world have suffered greatly. It is for this reason that the majority of pension annuity managers especially in the UK are busy looking for ways to rebuild their long-term holdings. Farm land investment is one of their main attractions. They are very hopeful that the plan will work so as to generate enough returns for them. Agriculture is one of the unmistakable sources of income for many institutional investors and with the current rise in food prices, pension fund managers stand to make a lot of returns.