How Plantations International is Combating Climate Change with Sustainable Agricultural Practices

Plantations International’s Sustainable Agriculture and Social Responsibility: A Winning Combination: At Plantations International we consider our clients to be plantations partners. Your success is our success. With our broad range of products and services and an endless menu of custom tailored solutions. Plantations International has the resources and skills to make your farm, plantation or orchard commercially successful and environmentally sustainable. This concept of sustainable forest management ensures a corporate contribution to the country, its people and our future as well as maximizing the Company’s carbon sequestration. contribution, helping to combat global warming.

As food prices are closely linked to inflationary trends, owners of agricultural assets and those exposed to farming businesses possess a hedge against inflation. This is one key diversification benefit of the asset class. Agriculture has been shown to have low correlation with many other asset classes such as equities and corporate debt, which dominate the investment market. This means that including agricultural in a portfolio can provide significant diversification benefits, resulting in an increase in portfolio return or reducing overall portfolio risk. Population driven food demand remains the core base of demand for agricultural commodities. The demand for food is relatively inelastic to income, making demand for agricultural commodities less subject to an economic slowdown.

Food security is traditionally defined as food availability and one’s access to it. Over the years however the definition of food security has developed into more descriptive terms as its importance has risen. The Food & Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and dozens of others today have their own interpretation of food security. Food security ought to be a priority for all countries, whether developing or developed. Although low levels of food security are commonly associated with poverty stricken countries they are also found in affluent developed countries as well. Food security rankings despite providing a decent gauge of performance are not without limitations. For example, some of wealthiest countries logically fare well in overall rankings as they have the capability and infrastructure to provide accessible, healthy food to their populations. Yet these high rankings dangerously mask their poor natural resources and resilience rank which measures food import dependency to a small degree. This raises the question, how can a country be food secure when they can be highly dependent on others for their food supply?

With offices, plantations, and representatives across Asia, Europe, and Africa, Plantations International is a multinational plantation and farm management company that specializes in providing sustainable agricultural and forestry or “agroforestry” management services for its clients. Plantations International has clients ranging from private individuals to large landholders and corporate investors. We put teamwork, innovation, and our passion for creating “Ethical & Sustainable Capital” at the heart of everything we do.

Caloric Requirements: Not only is world population growing, but its diet is changing too. As people become more affluent they start eating more food, thereby increasing the necessity for more supply. Food consumption, in terms of kcal/person per day has consistently risen throughout the world. It has increased from an average of 2,360 kcal/person per day in the mid-1960s to 2,900 currently. This growth has been accompanied by significant structural change. Diets have shifted towards more livestock products (meat and dairy), cereals (coarse grains, wheat and rice) and away from staples such as roots and tubers. Tubers include potatoes, sweet potatoes and yams. Roots include carrots and turnips. 1.4 billion hectares of land the equivalent of 28% percent of the world’s agricultural area is used annually to produce food that is lost or wasted. The total volume of water used each year to produce food that is lost or wasted (250km3) is equivalent to three times the volume of Lake Geneva.

One of the first things Plantations International scientists learned is that there are several greenhouse gases responsible for warming, and humans emit them in a variety of ways. Most come from the combustion of fossil fuels in cars, factories and electricity production. The gas responsible for the most warming is carbon dioxide, also called CO2. Other contributors include methane released from landfills and agriculture (especially from the digestive systems of grazing animals), nitrous oxide from fertilizers, gases used for refrigeration and industrial processes, and the loss of forests that would otherwise store CO2. Plantations International often use the term “climate change” instead of global warming. This is because as the Earth’s average temperature climbs, winds and ocean currents move heat around the globe in ways that can cool some areas, warm others, and change the amount of rain and snow falling. As a result, the climate changes differently in different areas.