The initial gains for most agriculture sectors are modest. Japan budged little on rice, the US gave few concessions on sugar and Canada's dairy system stayed relatively intact.

Third generation rice grower, Ian Blight, is hopeful the deal will be good for growers, but remains cautious.

"It'd be nice to, but the proof will be in the pudding," said Mr Blight, who grows rice near Griffith in NSW's agriculture-rich Riverina district.

"It depends on the deal we've done and whether we can get rice in there."

Japan agreed to create a new 6000 tonne quota for Australian rice and cut tariffs on a number of rice preparation products.

This is significantly less than the 50,000 tonne quota for US rice exports to Japan. Nevertheless, Mr Blight welcomed the greater access to what he labelled the "holy grail" for rice growers.

Japan is a particularly attractive export market for Australian rice farmers because mills buy premium varieties, which deliver better margins to growers.

Mr Blight said there where many difficulties exporting rice to Japan. It is the archipelago's staple grain and a powerful symbol of self-sufficiency. It was also among the thorniest issues in hammering out the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement.

"We have been banging on Japan's door for 20 years," Mr Blight said.

"Each time we try and get it in they put up quarantine rules and when we pass the tests they add in more tests.

"It will be interesting to see what happens and whether anything comes of it."

No water means no rice

The government is trumpeting that for the first time in over 20 years Australia will be able to export rice because of an agreement on "new administrative arrangements to facilitate trade". It also said rice tariffs to Mexico would be eliminated.

But Mr Blight said the government also needed to address water issues for farmers because there was little point stimulating production if water allocations were restricted. No water, means no rice.

Australian Dairy Farmers president Noel Campbell said while gains to be delivered under the TPP were modest, he said further liberalising global markers was a positive.

Australian dairy farmers will be able to export 9000 extra tonnes of cheese to the US after reshuffling quotas, which were created when Australia signed a free trade agreement with the US in 2004.

"Some of those quotas weren't filled because they weren't commercial amounts," Mr Campbell said. "So what we have been able to do is close down those quotas and move the tonnages from evaporated milk and small product mix stuff into cheese."

Mr Campbell said the TPP also increased access to Japan for Australian dairy farmers and sped up tariff cut timelines, which were created when the Abbot government signed the Japanese trade agreement last year.

For example, Australian cheese is blended with local product when it is sent to Japan at a ratio of 2-1. That was expected to be increased to 3.5-1 and be tariff free within 11 years, but it will happen immediately once the TPP starts operating.

While Mr Campbell looked for the positives under the deal, the world's biggest dairy exporter, New Zealand's Fonterra, was rueing an opportunity missed.

Fonterra chairman John Wilson said the agreement had failed to reach its potential, blaming "entrenched protectionism" from North America.

Australia and New Zealand had called for greater access to the US market, though the biggest criticisms were reserved for Canada, where a system of tariffs and supply management has insulated the country's 12,000 dairy farmers from the rest of the world.

Emotional Canadian issue pre-election

Dairy has emerged as an emotional issue in Canada's nationwide elections to be held later this month. Tractors converged on Ottawa, the nation's capital, earlier this week as farmers pressured the government to reject any TPP agreement. In the end, Canada agreed to open, over five years, foreign quotas for 3.3 per cent of its dairy market.

A spokeswoman for Australia's biggest milk processor Murray Goulburn said the co-operative was still digesting the agreement, struck overnight on Monday, but said on surface it seemed positive.

Australian sugar growers had hoped a better result. The agreement will allow for an additional 65,000 tonnes of Australian sugar in to the US, where the domestic sugar producers carry enormous political clout.

The government also said there deal provides for future quota allocations that could see Australian exports reach more than 400,000 tonnes by 2020, whereas the industry had hoped to secure exports amounting to about 750,000 tonnes.

But MSF Sugar chief executive Mike Barry said while the deal fell short of what the industry had hoped for, it remained a good outcome for canegrowers and millers.

"It is materially helpful. It will put more money into the pockets of local grain growers here," Mr Barry said.

"The US has a fixed domestic price, which acts like a subsidy. But it means the US sugar price is about double the world sugar price.

"It's highly attractive."

There are also cuts to levies applied to higher quality sugar sold to Japan.

Australian red meat growers praised the agreement, particularly as tariffs on frozen and chilled Australian beef entering Japan fall from 19.5 per cent to 9 per cent.

Meanwhile, processed red meat import tariffs applied by Japan, which currently range from 6 per cent to 50 per cent, will be eliminated within 15 years, as well as the majority of offal and live cattle imports.

Tariff cuts will also be applied to Australian beef entering Canada, Mexico and Peru.

"The TPP agreement will … help to ensure that the Australian red meat supply chain remains internationally competitive – with more seamless trade rules, reduced costs and less red tape making it easier for our sector to respond to the growing consumer demand across much of the Asia-Pacific region," the peak bodies representing Australia's various red meat growers said in a joint statement. With Bloomberg