It's a little too early for me to recommend any stocks in this space, but here are a couple of names for you to research on your own: Australian Agricultural Company LimitedASAGF), which owns 585,000 head of cattle, and Black Earth FarmingBLERF, which is listed in Stockholm but owns farmable but as yet unfarmed land in southwest Russia.
Several others are also available with a lot of them in Asia. One prudent way to invest would be to put 3% in to two different farms that are preferably in different parts of the world to lessen the risk.
Like with emerging markets, El-Erian's suggested allocation to commodities at 11% is a high number for a lot of people. (Generally, I prefer closer to 5% in commodities.) In looking at the broad-based commodity products, three of the popular ones are iPath DJ AIG Commodity Index Total ReturnDJP), PowerShares DB Commodity Index Tracking FundDBC and Rogers International Commodity Index Total ReturnRJI.
Given the huge run in energy lately, I would want to avoid DBC because it allocates by far the most to the energy complex at 60%. That leaves DJP and RJI, but RJI has a more diverse allocation so it would be my choice here.
Inflation-protected bonds are a great tool. The simplest exposure is with iShares Lehman TIP ETFTIP, and I would also include SPDR DB International Government Inflation Protected Bond ETFWIP. You could add the missing 2% from above into this portion of the portfolio and put 3% in TIP and 4% in WIP.
