Super funds should make rural investments

Australian superannuation funds are blind to the potential for good investment returns in rural assets, the deputy prime minister says.

Nationals leader Barnaby Joyce will make the case for more rural investments at a commodities conference in Canberra this week.

"Why is it that people from China, from Canada, from every corner of the world, can see the advantage and we can't see it clearly when it's like the nose in front of our face?" he told ABC TV.

He pointed out there was a total of $2 trillion in super funds but only 0.3 per cent was invested in the rural portfolio.