Three Agricultural Investments to Buy Amid War and Famine

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Three Agricultural Investments to Buy Amid War and Famine

Three agricultural investments to buy amid war and famine stand out as opportunities to profit and to help feed the world’s growing population.

The truth is there is enough food produced in the world to feed everyone, but more than 783 million people go hungry anyway, according to Action Against Hunger. However, investing in companies engaged in food production can improve the situation in the places where their products and services are offered.

The three agricultural investments to buy amid war and famine feature an international farm machinery company, an agricultural fund and an agribusiness. None of them will solve the hunger problem and prevent famine individually, but they offer ways that investors can put their money into the industry that can have a meaningful impact in meeting a basic human need.

As for acute food insecurity, 281.6 million people, accounting for 21.5% of the analyzed population in the Global Report on Food Crises, faced high levels of acute food insecurity in 59 countries and territories in 2023, according to Food Security Information Network. With conflicts around the globe, including Russia’s continuing invasion of Ukraine and the ongoing fighting between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, famine remains a major world issue that investors can help to address by putting their money into the food supply.

Global Hunger and Malnutrition are Mountainous Problems

The scale of the current global hunger and malnutrition crisis is enormous, according to the World Food Programme. More than 42 million people suffer from “emergency” levels of hunger, meaning families face large food consumption gaps with high malnutrition rates and excess deaths, or they must sell the few assets they have left.

Loss of income at this stage is irreversible, according to the World Food Programme. People have access to three or fewer food groups like fruits, grains and vegetables, and consume below 2,100 calories per day.

Even worse off are more than one million people facing “catastrophic hunger,” defined as a complete lack of access to food and other basic needs. Starvation, death, destitution and extremely critical levels of acute malnutrition are evident. At least two out of every 10,000 people die of starvation or disease in famine conditions.

People just have access to one or two food groups and there is an extreme shortage of calories per person, per day. Those bleak conditions currently are occurring in parts of Gaza, as well as in sections of Mali and South Sudan, the World Food Programme noted.

In the last decade alone, people have been increasingly focused on fixing the widespread issue of famine, according to Grow Further, a group that connects farmers, scientists and others in innovative global food security and sustainable agriculture. The group found that economic consequences from the recent global pandemic, wars and price inflation continue in 2024. Governments and international organizations predict that there will be ongoing problems with food security, making the agricultural industry critical to addressing the crisis.

Three Agricultural Investments to Buy Amid War: Deere & Co. (NYSE: DE)

Deere & Co. (NYSE: DE), a Moline, Illinois-based global provider of agricultural equipment, is one of the three agricultural investments to buy amid war and famine. With its clearly recognizable branding and innovativeness, it is rated as a BUY by a number of investment research firms that include www.StockRover.com.

Founded during 1837 in Grad Detour, Illinois, Deere has become a household name. According to the company’s website, Deere uses its innovations to help farmers save time and money, benefitting consumers and business owners alike.

Deere also offers an enticing dividend yield of more than 8%. It is an agricultural stock to invest in Amid War on Famine.

In an investment column by Paul Dykewicz, he cited Deere as one of five agricultural stock picks to purchase with the war in Russia and Ukraine raging. Based on the potential for even further advancement in the robotics industry, DE is a way for investors to get in on a company that not only prioritizes efficiency, but also helps farmers reach their potential in production.

Although the industry hasn’t been doing well in the current year, Deere’s Chief Financial Officer Josh Jepsen said that the “fundamentals for farmer financials are still strong.” Jepsen told CNBC that balance sheets and land values remain strong and debt-equity ratios are low. He added that the industry is doing much better than a decade ago.

As a traditional brand, Deere has deep roots in American agribusiness. The stock can be bought at a bit of a discount, since it slid 6.92% in the past 12 months and 5.54% year to date.

Chart courtesy of www.stockcharts.com

Three Agricultural Investments to Buy Amid War: Invesco DB Agriculture Fund (DBA)

Three agricultural investments to invest in amid war and famine also include Invesco DB Agriculture Fund (DBA), an exchange-traded fund (ETF). Bob Carlson, a retired pension fund chairman who now leads the Retirement Watch investment newsletter, said that investors seeking exposure to agricultural stocks can do so through diversified industry commodities, such as those that compose the holdings of DBA.

Bob Carlson is the editor of Retirement Watch

The fund seeks to track all changes in the level of the DBIQ Diversified Agriculture Index Excess Return over time. DBA also holds interest-paying Treasury Income, T-Bill ETFs and money market securities.

The fund has produced a return of 16.24% during the past year and 15.28% year to date. The index, which is comprised of one or more underlying commodities (“index commodities”), is intended to reflect the agricultural sector. The fund pursues its investment objective by purchasing a portfolio of exchange-traded futures.

Chart courtesy of www.stockcharts.com

Three Agricultural Stocks to Invest in Amid War on Famine: Bunge Global SA (NYSE:BG)

Bunge Global SA (NYSE:BG) is a technologically advanced agribusiness and food company headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri. Its operations span the farm-to-consumer food chain.

Bunge Global SA is known for producing farming supplies and plant-based oils, proteins and fats. The products are used throughout the industry, in products such as animal feed, cooking oils and flours, dairy fat alternatives and even infant nutrition.

It has generated a return of 18.28% for the past 12 months and 7.51% year to date. Analysts from Stock Rover give this stock a rating of BUY.

Recently, the agricultural stock announced that it will pay a dividend on Sept. 2, with investors getting 68 cents per share, according to Simply Wall St. This payment will boost the dividend yield to 2.6%, in line with the industry average. 

Chart courtesy of www.stockcharts.com

Agriculture remains an important industry for investors to consider in diversifying their holdings, especially with the dual opportunity to pursue profits and to help fight world hunger. The three agricultural investments to buy amid war and famine could prove tempting for those who want to do well for themselves and the world.