Rural exports are one of the few bright spots in the Australian economy this week in what has otherwise been a bloodbath in the global financial markets with a plummeting dollar set to significantly increase the value of farm export commodities like wool, wheat, sugar and dairy.

And the shock decision by the Reserve Bank to cut interest rates by one per cent – the largest slice in rates in 16 years – will also help ease the debt pain in the farm sector which is carrying debt of more than $50 billion.

But analysts say the rates were cut so heavily because of fears a recession may not be far off in Australia, meaning access to credit could cost more or in some cases dry up.

For now exporters see the currency slide as good news and are hoping that despite the financial uncertainty they can capitalise on the lower dollar which should help make Australian commodities more financially attractive overseas.

The dollar has recorded a severe slump in the past week and has dropped from highs of almost 98 cents in July, to below 70 cents on Monday night.

National Farmers Federation economics manager, Charlie McElhone, said if the dollar was to stay at this level for a year or so, it could improve the value of Australian exports by about $5.1 billion.

He said every one per cent decrease in the dollar would trigger an improvement of about $190m in Australia's net farming incomes, but again stipulated this would not happen unless current currency levels were sustained for a reasonable period of time.

He said there were a suite of risk management tools available to farmers to help lock in prices for their exports at the lower dollar value and he encouraged farmers to investigate their options if they hadn't already done so.