"The ministries have been allowed independence with regard to disbursement of their budgetary allocation. If outsourcing of expertise to execute budgetary programmes is felt urgent, any ministry is free to choose it," Dr A B Mirza Azizul Islam said.

Private television company Channel i organised the discussion on Agriculture Budget and the Budget for Farmers at the National Economic Council (NEC) auditorium.

The adviser also informed the function of the government decision on a change in the traditional distribution system for fertiliser with a view to improving the prevailing crisis of the farm input.

He said progress in the budget implementation by all ministries will be reviewed on a time-to-time basis.

On the changed system of fertiliser distribution, Agriculture Adviser CS Karim said from now on the dealers having warehouses at union level are eligible for being a fertiliser distributor.

He also laid bare a card system under which fertiliser will be distributed among the peasants.

Responding to a query, the finance adviser said unfortunately a bad experience is gathered by distribution of fertiliser through the private sector, although opening up such a distribution to the private sector appeared to be the best solution.

He admitted to the fact that a huge quantity of fertiliser is being smuggled out to India and Myanmar through the private sector, as the price of the item in Bangladesh is comparatively low.

He also expressed his fear about a rise in such smuggling in case of private sector dominance on fertiliser distribution.

Energy Adviser Tapan Chowdhury in his speech said, "We have lot of agriculture technologies. However all of them did not reach out to the farmers at grassroots level."

He suggested that the private sector can play a significant role here in reaching out the modern technology to the farmers.

Brac Executive Director Mahbub Hossain pointed out that the landowners usually do not cultivate lands. So when fertiliser will be distributed through card system, it should be looked into that marginal farmers are not missed, he suggested.

Describing the fertiliser crisis as a problem round the year, he suggested formation of a committee that would assess the total demand for fertiliser and other agricultural inputs.

He also felt it urgent to fix up fertiliser prices by the government.

Dwelling on the recent fertiliser crisis, Rahim Uddin Ahmed, director general of the Agriculture Extension Department (AED), blamed the Bangladesh Chemical Industries Corporation (BCIC) for not distributing the item on time.

He said,"Following widespread coverage of the need of fertiliser by media, the BCIC has now started distributing it among the farmers."

Every ministry can constitute separate advisory committee to formulate one's own budget by taking recommendations from stakeholders, economist Atiur Rahman said, suggesting establishment of an agriculture commission to further develop the farming sector.

Rafiqul Islam, a farmer from Natore district, came down heavily on government's 'failure' in assessing the needs of fertiliser in a particular area while narrating his experience of not getting the farm input on time.

He lamented that the AED field officer in Natore unfortunately is not aware of the quantity the farmers need, which is considered a reason for fertiliser crisis.

Shykh Siraj, director and chief of News of Channel i placed 24-point recommendation at the discussion and urged the government to implement those in the interest of the toiling peasants who produce crops for the nation.

Siraj, who has been working with the farmers for the last three years at field level, formulated these recommendations.