Tag: geography

Red loam soils of Rajasthan are rich in Iron Oxide. It is a type of soil that develops in a warm, temperate, moist climate. They are usually poor growing soils, low in nutrients and humus and difficult to cultivate because of its low water holding capacity. Red soils are generally derived from crystalline rock. 

As Rajasthan is mostly covered by desert, it has sandy soil to the most extent. Soil that has very less capacity to hold water is sandy soil. Sandy soils have low moisture storage. High evaporation & low capacity limit the availability of rain water for plant use. 

The largest area in Rajasthan is occupied by desert soil, which covers the area west of the Aravallis up to the Pakistan border. The entire area is ill watered and unproductive and characterized with sand dunes, hillocks and rock outcrops. The soils contain about 90 to 95 per cent sand and about 5 to 7 per cent clay.

In arid and semi-arid areas, evaporation is always greater than precipitation. Under such circumstances, two main factors determine the nature and properties of soils. Firstly, there is very little vegetation and the soils lack humus content. Hence the soils are invariably of light colour. Secondly, the excess of evaporation makes soils lime accumulating. Thus they are bound to be pedocal in nature. This is the main reason behind the formation of Pedocal soil in Rajasthan.

Though there is very less fertility in desert soils to support agriculture, the presence of Phosphates and Nitrate components make the desert sands fertile for agricultural crops where water supply is regular.

In Rajasthan, both granite and sandstone give birth to sandy soil. Sandy soils have low moisture storage. High evaporation and low capacity limit the availability of rainwater for plant use. As Rajasthan is mostly covered by desert, it has sandy soil to the most extent.

Desert soils range from red to brown in color. They are generally saline in nature. Desert soils lack humus due to lack of vegetation in desert areas. Humus is a dark, organic material that forms in soil when plant and animal matter decays.  If there will be a lack of vegetation, then no humus will form in desert soils.

There are multiple reasons behind Rajasthan receiving scanty rainfall. Firstly the Arabian Sea Branch of South West Monsoon that causes rains in Western and South-Western India runs parallel to the Aravalli range and thus hardly causes any rainfall as the winds do not get interrupted.