Costs related to regreening a dry piece of land

Hello everyone,

My girlfriend and me (newbees on the forum) would like to buy a finca (farm) with a basic structure on it in the dryer regions of Spain. It's possible to buy these from around €20,000 (+/- 24,000 USD), but you basically get a monoculture piece of land of about 2ha with a stone minibarn (mas) of about 50m² which often needs a total renovation (call it a tiny house).

We'd like to get a crowdfunding campaign going for the reforestation and irrigation (swales, ponds, etc...) of the land and later set up a non-profit to spread this knowledge. Okay, quite ambitious and with a lot of faith in crowdfunding, I might hear you think Maybe, but we believe it's possible.

The land we're looking for will be around 2 to 3ha of which we'd like to reforest/regreen and irrigate about 0,5ha in a very first phase. We can't provide any technical data of the land, because we don't have it yet. In the picture below you'll get an idea of what we're looking for: dry, exhausted, sandy and/or with a high clay content, very dry summers, hot winds, annual rainfall is about 300mm (118 inch), often with hills nearby (on or off the property, which might be ideal water funnels, with or without its erosion problems)

At the moment we're only in a conceptual phase, but we hope that there are permies here who have/had experience with this which might help us get a basic idea. We would like to know what materials we need so we can give a good summary and estimate for the crowdfunding campaign. We're thinking of renting big machinery to dig the swales and ponds, hand tools, the investment in a low cost tree nursery, tree shoots, seed materials, water tanks to get the thing started, expert fees, etc... What do you think a low cost and hands on operation like that will cost? If everything goes as planned and there are not too many obstacles, what would be the time frame in which 0,5ha could be 'done'? That is, especially to know the time we need to rent expensive heavy machinery, and pay (a reasonable) wage of an expert, etc...

We understand that we can't provide you with enough info to really make a good estimate, but any feedback is welcome, will give us a better idea of what to expect and will help us to get our wild plan on track

Thanks in advance!!
Daniel & Clara

Number 1 you should probably purchase a PDM (permaculture design manual), and go to the drylands section.  Read it several times.  Then go check out some land with the ideas from the drylands section in mind.  The cost of machinery will vary considerably on the type of soils (sand, clay, silt?) and substrates (rocks, gravel, boulders, bedrock) that you are dealing with, and also with the amount of hardscaping (landscaping with big machines) that needs to be done based on your goals, such as what you are planning to grow, and how much are you planning to produce.  So as in most things permaculture... it depends.  It depends on way too many variables to really give an estimate, and I'm no expert to give a good estimate on such a project.  You may not need any machines at all.  You might want to invest in some concrete instead, to build limonias (concrete dams on bedrock slightly off contour to drain into a dam or catchment for central soaking), or cisterns.  Or you might just want to get a bunch of gabion cages, or you might just need a small machine that can move some rocks into place.   How much labor do you have at your disposal?  You might be able to do everything by hand with manual tools.  

Considering you are thinking to buy land that is presently or in the recent past been used for growing food plants, you may have an existing tree system in place, as the photo example indicates.  So, the first thing that I would look at is whether the trees are in the best and most logical location when it comes to getting landscape based water to them.  If some of them are but some of them aren't then focus on the trees that are in the best locations, and figure out guild systems (support trees, shrubs, etc) which you can get happening in your nursery which best suit the existing trees in the best areas for absorbing water.  Even if those species that exist are not your desired outcome forest, they can be used as sacrificial nursery trees to provide growing centers for your desired species.  Trees in poor locations for in ground water storage can be still utilized for their shade to grow hardy desert plants.   Getting shade on the landscape will be critical as will setting up hedgerow windbreak shelterbelt trees to shelter your prime food areas from the drying winds.  Research local areas for getting mulch and manure which will be essential for a speedy project.  

Figure out where the water is flowing from, and consider how to maximize the catchment with the idea of holding water on the land in the highest locations possible, for the longest periods of time, so that every rain event provides the most water for the longest time.

Perhaps you know all this stuff and all you need is the estimate on the machine cost which I can''t help you with.      Good luck.    

You seem excited and ambitious but I would advise an extensive period of research and observation, both before and after acquiring the property.  Some resources advise a full growing year primarily devoted to "getting to know" the site and it's surroundings.  Especially if you are living far away, this can be difficult to do at a distance, although modern on-line resources can help.  In a climate like this (a Mediterranean climate, much like mine here in California) the appearance of the landscape and what you see growing varies dramatically between the hot dry season and the cool moist season.  You may well discover rare plants that only appear in a brief spring season that you won't want to disturb by earthworks or other interventions.....and which you might well miss by proceeding hastily and not knowing they are there!   Another workable compromise advised in the literature is to set up a basic, perhaps temporary, living space with minimal infrastructure, perhaps adding some fresh-use gardens in its immediate surroundings, so that you can live on the site and make detailed observations and plan for larger interventions.  
     Another important issue to resolve quickly is what do you want to do with the site?  Each climate and landform has its own agenda....what it "wants to be" so to speak.  You can work with this, or you can attempt to modify or thwart it....to what end and on what scale?  The goal of meeting your own subsistence in food, for instance, versus the goal of producing a specialty item for market that is uniquely suited to your climate....or a combination of both....will dramatically alter your plans for the site.  
    Another smaller point to ponder is that especially if the site is very rural, and any earthmovers, etc. are only to be hired from a distance, it may be worthwhile to design and finance this work for the entire site at once, so as to avoid having to bring them back multiple times.