A fund that invests in global resources has outperformed its peers over the past three years by employing a team with specialist scientific training to identify risks and opportunities in the sector.

The First State Global Resources Fund has come top in a table of rankings of agriculture funds by data provider Camradata. Over the past three years, the fund has produced an annualised return of 14.10%, ahead of second-place Amundi's Funds Equity Global Agriculture fund with 12.84%. In third place was Kleinwort Benson's KBI Agri fund, with 11.34% over the same period.