try by all means to increase organic matter content and biological activity!

check this links the articles may be help you

https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/6c69/170a140e1cdc5edbbdc946c5782933ecc4fb.pdf

https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/agricultural-and-biological-sciences/desert-soils

https://www.jstor.org/stable/2466792

https://hal.inria.fr/hal-01559552/document

Thanks for the rocommendation

Recommend to go for vertical mulching and addition of soil amendment will improve the soil workability

Dear Dr Rani, thanks for responding to this question, we highly appreciate the experiences accumulated at your country through research when dealing with the expansive soils (Vertisols). Would you please provide more knowledge on vertical mulching and what kind of soil amendments would be feasible to be used by small scale traditional farmers?

We can add organic compost to the soil to enhance its characteristic under semi-arid conditions.

If the moisture content is not such that it can decompose the plant remains, it should not be used in crop-residues.

Vertical mulches provide water a pathway to the root zone, and can reduce the area of soil surface that is wet. Narrow trenches in garden beds can be filled with stalks like those of millet, maize, sunflower, Jerusalem artichoke, or amaranth. The air spaces created by these stalks conduct the water quickly down to the plant root zone where it is less likely to evaporate than when it is spread on the soil surface and infiltrates slowly. The principle is the same as root zone irrigation. In addition, these organic mulches will improve soil water-holding capacity as they decompose.

The beneficial effect of vertical mulch has been demonstrated in a laboratory experiment where 5.5 cm (2 in) of water was applied to a furrow, and the same amount poured into a vertical mulch of barley straw 7 cm (3 in) wide and 15 cm (6 in) deep.24 After 17 days of evaporation, 42% of the water applied in the furrow remained in the soil, while 72% of that applied in the vertical mulch remained. When water was applied rapidly, so that it overflowed the vertical mulch and wet the surrounding soil surface, only 60% of the water remained after 17 days of evaporation. Subsequent field experiments with sorghum showed that a similar mulch increased yields 20-40% over plots that were identical but with no mulch.25

Experiments with vertical mulches in gently sloping Vertisols in semiarid India have shown that sorghum stubble packed in trenches 15 cm (6 in) wide improved water infiltration and produced larger yields of grain and straw of an “improved variety” of sorghum, especially in years of drought.26 Vertical mulch in trenches 30 cm (12 in) deep and 2 m (6.5 ft) apart gave 25 times more grain yield and 2 times more straw yield than the areas without vertical mulches in a very dry year. The beneficial effects appeared to last 4 years, probably a result of improved soil structure as the straw partially decomposed after the second year. While sorghum stalks are used to feed cattle in this area, the bottom third of the stalks is not well liked by the cattle. The experimenters therefore felt that using the stalks for vertical mulching would not be a great loss for the cattle, especially if the mulching increased total straw production. However, alternative uses of the bottom third of the stalks, such as for fuel, were not considered

Regarding soil amendments farmer can go for application of organic manures, growing of green manure crop on bunds during crop growing season and cutting at fifty percent flowering stage and spreading in-between crop rows.

Growing cover crops as living mulche in between tall growing crop rows

However these methods will show some benefit over a period of time not immediately

For immediate result u can go for broad bed and furrow method of cultivation, where the furrow will conserve the moisture or if excess water is there it will act as drainage furrow. U can raise your crop on beds.

This little information I am sharing

Dr. Rani thanks, I am grateful. Absolutely useful research results and the guidelines are clear and the procedures details could be followed reasonably here. We will follow carefully what you have allowed us to share with you to try to improve the moisture characteristic of these soils. I hope you and other colleagues who are sharing the research information related to this question will continue contributing and following. Thank you all.