farmland and desert

there are lots of studies on how farmland turns into desert,
but almost no studies on how to go the other direction,

turning desert into farmland is easier than you may think (given all the pessimistic data you have likely seen)
if left on it's own desert land that has no organic matter and the soil is compacted may take a thousand years to turn into farmland,
but it can be quicker than that,
the trick is to mix in organic matter to the soil,
but where do you get it ?
you could import it (buying things may not be possible for large areas)
but you can likely get the land to give it to you,
if you take a large area and harvest the small amount of organic matter it does have and then mix it in to the soil in one small area you will get way more organic matter than the small area than the entire large area made the year before, and by some reports it is about 40 times as much,
this gives you the ability to fix the soil for 40 times the area the next year,
and it can just keep growing that way, 3 years is likely all any size plot would need,
it really is that easy,
and this is just working with the weeds that you don't have to take care of.

there may not be any studies on it, but it is possible and is not that hard at all.