Last year the spectre of famine stalked the globe as crop prices soared. Charities talked about the prospect of severe food shortages and investors poured money into agriculture and soft commodities, seeing only gains ahead.

Then the financial crisis reared its head, soft commodity prices fell and investors’ attention turned to seeing how much money they could pull back to tuck into their mattresses. The Schroders agriculture fund, which peaked at $6.4bn (£4.4bn, €4.8bn) in February 2008, has plummeted in size to $1.5bn, as assets tumbled in price and investors withdrew their money.