Soil Health As An Investment

This is Tim Hammerich of the Ag Information Network with your Farm of the Future Report.

Farmers are stewards of the land. But can investing in soil health help to pay the bills? That’s a question I had for Manulife Investment Management head of North American agricultural operations Kevin Wright. He says their returns on over 200,000 acres across the continent come in part from appreciation, which he says soil health can contribute to.

Wright… “ Our ultimate goal is really twofold. We look at returns from two different perspectives. One is the cash return, so how many dollars per acre can we return back to the client, either through a direct operating relationship or through a cash lease relationship? The second piece of that is the appreciation side of the asset, so we want to make sure that we're buying assets for our clients. That are in good regions with solid tenant pools, good infrastructure, that allows us to get the highest return, that are the highest cash return for that asset, as well as seeing an appreciating value for that asset.  One way, one big way to make sure that you're farmland, asset is appreciating is by growing and building that soil health.”

Manulife is currently gathering data to find the way to optimize their soil improvements over time.