Some of the world’s biggest pension funds said they have been ploughing money into farmland around the world as they seek to diversify portfolios and generate stable returns at a time of market volatility.

At an agriculture investment summit in London on Wednesday, leading U.S. and European pensions funds said few assets remained immune from whipsawing markets, prompting institutions to look at farmland.

“The crisis has accelerated our agriculture program,” said Jose Minaya, head of natural resources and infrastructure investments at TIAA-CREF, which manages about $500 billion for U.S. university professors and non-profit workers, including a significant investment in farmland.

“What we saw in 2008-2009 was that the (agriculture) portfolio performed extremely well, and liquidity for us increased … The only thing that people had that was worth something was tangible assets – land,” he added.

Source: Reuters