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PENSION FUNDS: KEY PLAYERS IN THE GLOBAL FARMLAND GRAB

This study is distinct from pervious studies in two folds. Firstly, this study fills the gap of limited research on emerging mutual funds. Secondly, this study explores determinants of mutual fund growth at the asset management corporation level. Research on emerging market mutual funds are performed at mutual fund level. Nazir et.al (2010) assessed determinants of mutual fund growth focusing on equity funds in Pakistan. Analysis of Thai mutual fund industry and competitive situation are elaborated in section 2. Data, model, and methodology are discussed in section 3. The last section concludes the paper together with comments and policy. | June 2011 PENSION FUNDS KEY PLAYERS IN THE GLOBAL FARMLAND GRAB Large scale agricultural land acquisitions are generating conflicts and controversies around the world. A growing body of reports show that these projects are bad for local communities and that they promote the wrong kind of agriculture for a world in the grips of serious food and environmental crises.1 Yet funds continue to flow to overseas farmland like iron to a magnet. Why Because of the financial returns. And some of the biggest players looking to profit from farmland are pension funds with billions of dollars invested. Pension funds currently juggle US 23 trillion in assets of which some US 100 billion are believed to be invested in commodities. Of this money in commodities some US 5-15 billion are reportedly going into farmland acquisitions. By 2015 these commodity and farmland investments are expected to double. Portfolio diversification Ascension Health with roughly 15 billion in assets between pension and operating funds and Wake Forest University s nearly 1 billion endowment are looking at maiden investments in farmland reports Mark Faro for Foundation and Endowment Money Management. http www.foundationendowinent.com Article. aspx Article D 2837085 Photo Mohsin Raza Reuters Pension funds are supposed to be working for workers helping to keep their retirement savings safe until a later date. For this reason alone there should be a level of public or other accountability involved when it comes to investment strategies and decisions. In other words pension funds may be one of the few classes of land grabbers that people can pull the plug on by sheer virtue of the fact that it is their money. This makes pension funds a particularly important target for action by social movements labour groups and citizens organisations. 1 See the materials from the international conference on Global Land Grabbing held on 6-8 April 2011 at the Institute for Development Studies University of Sussex UK http .