(a) The average size of agricultural holdings is still very small and uneconomical to cultivate the national average being around 1.69 hectares. Because of these uneconomic holdings, there is a great hindrance to the developmental programme of agriculture.
(b) India has the largest irrigated area of the cultivated land. Still the facilities of irrigation are available only on 30 percent area of our cultivated land 60 to 65 percent of the cropped area being rainfed.
(c) Indian farmers grow a wide variety of crops both food crops and commercial or cash crops. Yet a very large portion of our crops consist of food grains.
(d) Agriculture in India depends on the monsoon rains, which are uncertain, irregular and inequitably distributed. Artificial irrigation is very essential for growing various crops.
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(e) There are mainly two crop-seasons in India Rabi (November to April) and Kharif (June to October). An extra-crop known as “Zayad” is also grown after the kharif crop in the months of April May and June.
(f) The average productivity of crops is very low in comparison to several other agriculturally well developed countries of the world.
(g) Indian agriculture is predominantly of the subsistence type. About 72.3 percent of the total cultivated area is devoted to food crops and yet the country is just self-sufficient in its food requirements.