Growing business, formulating strategies and making connections in ag investing sector at GAI

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Mar 21, 2016, 11:00 ET

NEW YORK, March 21, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Several large deals over the past six months have all eyes on investing in agriculture. At next month's Global AgInvesting (GAI) conference here, a speaking faculty of over 90 will examine the enormous potential and possibility of diversifying investment portfolios with key agricultural assets.

Take featured speaker Paul Pittman, chairman and chief executive officer of Farmland Partners Inc., whose experience with buying and operating farms goes back nearly 20 years. His company closed a deal last week to acquire 118 farms totaling 22,100 acres surrounding Paris, Illinois for $197 million, one of the largest U.S. farmland acquisitions ever. Pittman is a solid source of proven ideas and strategies that Global AgInvesting attendees can look to for direction in ag investing during the 14-plus hours of networking time at the event.

Pittman will present "Row Crops, Specialty Crops & Permanent Crops - A Comparative Analysis" at the conference, which will be held April 25-28 in New York at the Waldorf Astoria.

"Farmland Partners owns or has under contract 258 farms with an aggregate of 108,163 acres across 13 states," said Pittman. "Investing in agriculture and farmers has provided us with a superb growth record, and continuously rising earnings for our stakeholders. We see enormous potential in investing in agriculture."

Joining Pittman at the speaking pulpit at the flagship Global AgInvesting conference where over 700 attendees are expected, are dozens of sector experts, such as:

Tomás Franzen, Chief Investment Strategist, Second Swedish National Pension Fund (AP2)
Kurt Akers, Assistant Senior Investment Officer,Washington State Investment Board
Dexter Paine, Chairman & CEO, Paine & Partners
Brent Bechtle, Founding Partner, Proterra Investment Partners

And Randall Pope, CEO of Westchester Group, a TIAA company, will moderate the Investor Perspectives panel at GAI. "In today's evolving global agricultural investing market it's critical to stay up-to-date on the changes taking place throughout the world," he said. "The Global AgInvesting conference is an excellent way to gain insights into the changes in various geographies around the globe. Networks created from having attended this conference over the past several years are a critical factor in our decision-making process."

Connect with GAI: @globalaginvest, Facebook, Linkedin Group or visit www.globalaginvesting.com/GAI16.

Global AgInvesting, the world's most well-attended agricultural investment conference series, is a HighQuest Group company.