President Mrs Pratibha Devi Singh Patil has strongly advocated the need to develop tele-agriculture to improve agricultural production in the country.

She called upon the scientific community to develop technologies to educate farmers about rain-fed and dryland farming and help them in better farming, higher agriculture productivity and increased incomes.

Mrs Patil also stressed the need for developing remote sensing applications for better management of resources including land, forests, water or minerals.

Addressing a function at Sriharikota, the President stated that development of latest technology and improved weather prediction systems is essential for food, water and energy security.

She said that the impact of climate change and the occurrence of disasters require enhancing our early warning systems and response capabilities which have a direct impact on the people and their ability to maintain their livelihood.

Earlier, Mrs Patil inaugurated the new Mission Control Centre at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre, SDSC at Sriharikota and dedicated it to the nation.

The President also visited various other facilities at the SDSC, including the rocket launching facilities.

Later, at a function in the evening, Mrs Prathiba Patil presented ISRO awards for the year 2008-09 to 20 eminent Scientists. The President then left for Chennai.