Soil of Pakistan

SOILS OF PAKISTAN
The soils in Pakistan are affected by arid climate,therefore belong to dry group,rich in basic having a high calcium carbonate content and poor in nitrogenous   matter.They vary in colour from reddish brown in north to red or gray in south.The soils at the foot of mountains are sandy but becomes finer towards plains where lime concentration is occasionally found.These are derived from two types of parent material:

  1) Alluvium,loess and wind blown sand.They are of mixed mineralogy.The newly deposited alluvium near the river is called khaddar and mostly consists of sand.The old alluvium of the bar uplands,called bangar consists of loams .The soils of the Thal and Thar deserts and Baluchistan are wind blown.In southern potwar a thin layer of residual slit is found . In parts of canal irrigation lands,salt afforescences are found,generally in the areas of high water table.These saline areas are known as thur or kallar.

  2) Residual material obtained from weathering of underlying rocks.Most of the rocks are calcareous.In some areas granites have produced non –calcareous soil material.very small quantities of salts are released from most of the rocks. The soils are therefore,essencially non-saline.

  Soil Types

  The soils of Pakistan has acquired distinct characteristics from the parent material and by their mode of formation.The river-laid sediments have developed into alluvial soils.The desert sand have turned into distinct soils.The hills ,mountains and the plateaus produced residual soils with patches of alluvial ,loess and other soils.The soils of Pakistan can be classified into the following six soil types:
    1) Alluvial Soils of the Flood Plains:
      The flood conditions differ from one region to another within the flood plains of Pakistan.This is because areas close to rivers are flooded each year,areas away from rivers are inundated in years of sever floods,while coastal areas are subjected to tidal flooding.This has...