Desert, wasteland, and barren mountain ranges cover about half of Iran's total land area. Of the rest, in the 1980s about 11 % was forested, about 8 % was used for grazing or grazing land, and about 1.5 % was made up of cities, villages, industrial centers, and related areas. The remainder included land that was cultivated either permanently or on a rotation, dry-farming basis and land that could be farmed with sufficient irrigation. Some observers considered the latter category as grazing land.

Emphasis on subsistence agriculture persisted because of the deficiency of capital allocated after the Revolution, perhaps because the regime's technocrats were from urban areas and therefore uninformed about agriculture, or because the bazaar class, which constituted a disproportionate share of the 1979 government, did not represent the interests of agriculture. Uncertainties about future landownership, as well as the war with Iraq, caused further disruption of agriculture. Ten % of agricultural land fell into Iraqi hands between 1980 and 1982, although the territory was consequently regained by Iran. The war stifled agricultural development by causing a loss of revenue and by draining the already shrinking agricultural labor pool through heavy conscription.