The price of grains and other agriculture products are soaring amid a crippling drought in the United States, but there are bigger supply threats to the sector than weather patterns, international investor Jim Rogers said.
Rising demand for food worldwide coupled with dwindling supplies, fewer farmers and not enough future farmers in the pipeline pose much bigger threats than a temporary U.S. drought.
"The world faces serious problems in agriculture," Rogers told Business Insider. "We are facing shortages of everything. The inventories are near historic lows so any problem will have an immediate, profound effect. We are facing a shortage of farmers so any problems will turn into even bigger," he said.
"The drought is a big deal if it's not raining on your farm. But it is good for farmers in other parts of the world. You can't have perfect weather conditions everywhere, every year. And with all the other problems, we're hitting trigger points," Rogers added.
"Such problems point to higher agricultural prices, and investors should buy now. Any weather problems will have big effects because of the dire situation in farming. Agriculture will be one of the best sectors of the world economy for years as I have told you often," he said.
The drought has gripped much of the nation, and not since 1956 has so much of the United States been stricken with drought conditions, the Washington Post reported, citing National Climatic Data Center data.
About one-third of the nation's corn crop has suffered from the drought, while wheat and soybean prices have risen as well.
"We're moving from a crisis to a horror story," Purdue University agronomist Tony Vyn told Reuters. "I see an increasing number of fields that will produce zero grain."
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