India is a country of more than 1 000 million people. It is the seventh largest nation in the world with a geographical area of 328.7 million ha. Agriculture is the mainstay of the Indian economy, contributing about 22 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) and providing a livelihood to two-thirds of the population. The net cultivated area has been about 141 million ha for the last 30 years. However, there has been a progressive increase in the gross cropped area as the cropping intensity has increased from 118 to 135 percent in the last three decades. The total gross cropped area is about 190 million ha. There are 115.6 million farmholdings, with an average size of 1.41/ha.
The country has a diverse landscape and a climate varying from the areas with highest rainfall such as Mawsynram near Cherrapunji (Meghalaya) to the driest parts of western Rajasthan with negligible rain and from a hot and humid southern peninsula to the snowbound Himalayan Mountains. Broadly, the climate of India is of the tropical monsoon type. It has four seasons: winter (January–February), a hot summer (March–May), rainy southwest monsoon (June–September), and post-monsoon (October–December). The climate is affected by two seasonal winds: the southwest monsoon and the northeast monsoon. The distribution of rainfall is very uneven in terms of time and space. About 72 percent of the area receives an annual rainfall of no more than 1 150 mm.
India has a net irrigated area (land area that receives irrigation from the different sources) of 54.68 million ha and a gross irrigated area (total area of crops that are irrigated) of 75.14 million ha (the largest in the world). Surface water and groundwater resources contribute 46 and 54 percent, respectively, of the total. Food crops occupy 69 percent of the irrigated area, the remaining 31 percent being under non-food crops.
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