**7.9 Thal Desert**

*Climate Change and Agriculture*

districts in Baluchistan. The piedmont plains of the Sulaiman range are sloping toward the Indus River. A large number of alluvial fans have been built by the streams, which slope from the hills on to the piedmont slope. Barkhan, Dera Bugti, Nasirabad, and Jhal Magsi districts lie at the foot of the Sulaiman range to the west. The piedmont deposits in this area show a generalized grading in texture, with gravel and boulders near the hills and silty material farther away. However, this grading of material is not in evidence everywhere, because it has been obscured by subsequent fine or course materials, producing geohydrological inequalities laterally and vertically in the deposits. Severe soil erosion, heterogeneity of soils, shifting of stream channels, lack of vegetation and meager, and highly variable rainfall have made it into one of the most desolate areas of the arid region. The weather is

generally hot and arid with hot long summers and short cool winters.

The soils are loamy on gentle slope near mountains but clayey in level areas. All these soils are strongly calcareous and low in organic matter content. Strong salinity occurs only in narrow strip, which is the junction of piedmont plain and the river floodplain.

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**Figure 13.**

*Dera Ismail Khan land use.*

The region consists of Layyah, Bhakkar, and Khushab districts in western Punjab. This is a typical desert area with desert landforms including sand ridges, dunes, and sand sheets. However, it places silty and clayey deposits occurring in narrow strips. *The sand ridges are 5–15 m high* [19]. Between the sand ridges, there are depressions that turn into ponds after the rain. In the central parts of the desert, there are large elongated channels showing the palaeochannels the Indus. The desert is quite profusely dotted with vegetation comprising short trees and canals for irrigation. The climate is arid with hot long summers and warm short winters.

"This is an area of the stable sand ridges, which have sand and loamy fine sand soils" [20]. The hollows between the sand ridges have sandy loams and loams, which account for about 10% of the area. However, in the southwestern part of the area, the proportion of loamy soils increases. All the soils are moderately calcareous and have low organic matter content. In addition, there are some narrow strips of silty and clayey soils, which are moderately to strongly calcareous and locally saline. Predominant land use of the area is grazing of livestock especially goats, sheep, camels, and cattle (**Figures 9** and **10**).

A part of the area is used for dry farming of mainly gram and wheat, while cotton, sugarcane sorghum, millets, and wheat are also grown by canal irrigation.
