Instructions for Greening California Valley

Howdy! I live on 100+ acres that my friend owns and I’ve been trying to get the owner to go into a more sustainable direction. He has 30 acres of unused, dry, barren land that I want to re-green. This plot is very flat, no vegetation at all, just dirt. The climate is very hot in the summer and winter precipitation is lower every year. A lot of the information I’ve read on re-greening uses terraces, so I’m not entirely sure how to go about it. The only distinguishing features of the land is that it’s surrounded by a thick Himalayan blackberry hedge on two sides and an irrigation channel on one, the channel only has water in the summer when a neighbor irrigates, so maybe 7 days a month? The owner is also very typical in his thinking - monoculture, big ag - but his land barely makes a profit. I want to show him that this can be done and actually make him money too, but my budget is very limited. I do have access to a backhoe. Please help.

I am not sure where instruction for greening the desert would be found except in the books and teaching of permaculture artisans.

Here are some threads that have info, links, and youtube recommendations:

https://permies.com/t/121687/Dry-arid-clay-tropical-deforested#977727

https://permies.com/t/58559/permaculture-projects/Big-Fat-Thread-Dryland-Farming

https://permies.com/t/138768/Water-Plants-Trees-Drought-Conditions

https://permies.com/t/52127/Turning-sand-soil

And here is Bryant Redhawk's soil series that will help you to learn about building your soil:

https://permies.com/wiki/redhawk-soil

Thanks, I’ll be sure to check out those links, any information is super helpful.

Maybe silvopasture with diversified trees and depressed alley for water catch, if its flat. Its could be big ag
What kind of big ag are they doing? Possible to use their       machines thru the allies and run any close by animals thru it when possible.
Also, bees make money and permanent hedgerows for them, that also can be used for some other product
I dont know where you are, or how much work you're    capable of or willing to do

As far as equipment, they have a backhoe and tractor, most things are done by hand or rented from the neighbors. A bee company gives us honey in exchange for a place to leave their hives. I make the honey into mead for the farm, but I’d like my own bees at some point. I’ve looked into silvopasture, but I feel it would be incredibly difficult to keep animals off the trees unless I had a lot of cash to invest in fencing.

https://youtu.be/9VGHoxpYlWQ

Geoff Lawton has done work on flat desert land. Swales and berms, organic matter/mulch...start small.

I might need to pick up Geoff Lawton’s book, I’ve seen a few of his documentaries and I really like what he did in Jordan. One issue I have found in the past is that several permaculture books are more big picture, they have great general ideas, but few specific instructions.