A firm owned by Cargill plans to shutter four of its hedge funds and return more than $1 billion to investors over the next several months, the latest agricultural giant to reassess its investment ambitions.

Executives at the firm, Black River Asset Management, cited a lack of investor demand for the funds, which includes a commodities fund and two emerging markets funds, as the reason for the closures. They also said the firm planned to lay off some employees but declined to quantify the scope of the job cuts.