With many agricultural commodity prices at multi-year highs, buying farmland is seen as a more direct way to cash in on valuable crops and to take advantage of long-term appreciation of farm property. This is done by farm syndicates or direct ownership. As a result, investment funds worldwide have put an estimated $20 billion to $30 billion in agriculture globally, and interest is also growing from ultra-rich investors and pension funds, which see farmland as tangible, strategic assets. Private funds are not…