The Finance Minister Mr. Pranab Mukherjee today began pre budget discussions with agriculturists. This is the first in the series of meetings that he will hold with sectoral experts and industry captains in the next three weeks. The objective of this annual exercise is to understand ground realities and get inputs of all stakeholders before preparing the budget. With the agriculture production set to touch record levels, the issue of fertiliser subsidy, financial inclusion of farmers, irrigation issues and better marketing facilities are likely to be at the focus of discussions.