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The Dublin-domiciled Credit fund will have a Ucits III structure and aim to provide positive returns throughout any market by investing in a wide range of fixed income securities.

The portfolio will be managed by Alex Veroude, head of credit at Insight. The fund will have a minimum investment of £250,000 and a management fee of 1 per cent a year, with a 10 per cent performance fee.

The Insight Global Farmland trust will be a Guernsey-domiciled, closed-end vehicle that will invest directly in a number of farmland holdings. It will be managed by Reza Vishkai, managing director of alternatives at Insight, and have a target net return of 12-15 per cent.

Insight said the agriculture-based fund differed from competitors by being globally invested, while most others focus on one particular geographical area. Minimum investment is £250,000, with an AMC of 1.5 per cent.

Charmion McBride, head of agriculture and chief operating officer of the Global Farmland fund, said: "We have been working on agriculture for the last two years at Insight, looking at different ways of providing investors with exposure.

"We have come up with what we think is the optimal vehicle – a long-term, closed-end structure that allows people to invest in farmland, and by doing so, get the gains of not just commodity-price appreciation over the long term, which is supported by the supply and demand fundamentals, but from the land-value appreciation that comes with it."

Matthew Hunt, principal of London-based IFA firm Prospect Wealth Management, said: "I would not be an authority on farmland, but grain and agriculture prices have spiked and are now falling. Such a fund would have been a good idea three years ago when prices were very low - there's a risk the fund is being launched after the horse has bolted."

Chris Nevile, director of London-based firm Principal Investment Management, disagreed with Mr Hunt, saying agriculture was set to continue as a dominant theme over the long term.

"We would be quite positive on the fund. Commodities, and soft commodities in particular, have performed particularly well over the last few years, and the industry as a whole has a period of growth coming that will last for the next 10 years."

Mr Nevile admitted there were some downsides, such as the rise in oil and input prices, but overall he said he remained positive.

Both men agreed the Credit fund was a very good idea, with Mr Hunt saying: "Credit spreads have widened to what's historically been a very attractive position historically, so at the moment, there's a lot of opportunities in the market."