The company hopes to expand use of its precision agri platform from 140,000 to 1m acres in 2016.
The Agricultural Competitiveness White Paper promised the appointment of an agricultural commissioner to the Australian competition regulator.
Tim Hunt, formerly global dairy strategist, replaces Luke Chandler, who has become deputy chief economist at John Deere.
Gerard van Olphen joins the European pensions giant as chief executive.
The investment group says it is investigating expansion into new agri sectors and will eschew private equity for long term private investment when it comes to agricultural infrastructure.
Anne Stausboll has served CalPERS as chief executive since January 2009, a time when the largest US public pension fund was experiencing turmoil from the financial crisis and an ethics scandal involving its former officials.
Skye Macpherson gained fifteen years of portfolio management experience at Colonial First State Global Asset Management before joining BlackRock last year.
Iain Elgin joins the London office after working for CBRE in Australia. The firm has also made three other hires since September.
Michael Christodolou replaces Dean Jernigan on the REIT's board of directors.
The American agri giant, which is about to spin out asset management arm Black River, says a single executive team of 10 will speed up decision-making at the top of the company.