Andrew Millison has a video series that includes restoration of wasteland in India.
Before you accumulate organics, you change how surface water is captured and absorbed into the ground. It can be as simple as shallow trenches or holes (no deeper than a few feet) to slow down water. That then supports the trees, which starts the ecological succession to reverse desertification.
Sometimes, you don't even need to seed it. Just slowing down water is enough to get the process started.
I'd say though, the biggest factor in turning arable land into desert is our modern, industrial-scale agricultural practices. Mainstream-adjacent methods such as polycropping, agroforestry, integrating livestock grazing, etc. yields more resilient farming systems than the usual practice of annually stripping away topsoil, let alone more divergent practices such as perennial food forests.
Before you accumulate organics, you change how surface water is captured and absorbed into the ground. It can be as simple as shallow trenches or holes (no deeper than a few feet) to slow down water. That then supports the trees, which starts the ecological succession to reverse desertification.
Sometimes, you don't even need to seed it. Just slowing down water is enough to get the process started.
I'd say though, the biggest factor in turning arable land into desert is our modern, industrial-scale agricultural practices. Mainstream-adjacent methods such as polycropping, agroforestry, integrating livestock grazing, etc. yields more resilient farming systems than the usual practice of annually stripping away topsoil, let alone more divergent practices such as perennial food forests.