Andean Agriculture

Andean agriculture was important in America, it was a fundamental base of the Inca and pre-Inca economy. Agriculture was the food sustenance of many peoples in America and thanks to this activity the pre-Inca peoples managed to adapt, improve and create new varieties of seeds.

Peru farming dates back 10 000 years. In the highlands, and particularly in Cusco city and region, agriculture is believed to have started up between the fifth and fourth millenium BC in the temperate valleys.This early form of farming was basically limited to gathering roots and wild fruits and vegetables, and planting some seeds but without the use of irrigation. Squash, beans, peanuts, aji chili pepper, maize, potato, achira and lucuma fruit were possibly the first products to have been planted.

Throughout the difficult process of adapting to Peru's complex highland geography, which took around 2 000 years, Andean Man came up with ideas on how to make the best use of the different types of soil and how to improve the quality of his crops. Ancient Peruvians also developed the art of rearing Livestock, breeding species of camelus such as the llama and alpaca that were also used as beasts of burden and sources of materials such as wool and leather.

The gradual domestication of plants enabled the first villages to ensure a regular food supply for their growing populations. By the time the first civilizations had crafted pottery and weaving techniques, during the second millennium BC, Andean Man had already figured out how to make use of the rugged highland geography for agriculture and how to influence the natural evolution of species via selection, developing hybrids and employing other techniques.

Andean Agriculture Achievements

The Andes mountain Range was an important center of agricultural development that spread across the rest of South America. Andean people proved to be greatly skilled in domesticating plants in the various microclimates in the surrounding region. They planted several different varieties of potato, maize, the olluco and oca tubers and the grain quinoa, even in frigid highland areas above 3 500 m.s.n.m.

By exposing tubers such as chuño and moraya (freeze-dried potato) and cahui (oca) to natural freezing and then drying, the inhabitants produced longer-lasting products with a higher nutritional value.

Andean farmers domesticated more than 500 species of food staples, including tubers and roots such as potato, oca, olluco, añu or mashua, sweet potato, manioc root, uncucha, yacon, arracacha, achira, jikima, maca and mawk'ka; while bean and grain varieties included frijol, peanuts and lima beans, and tarwi, maize, quinoa, cañihua, amaranth, and puhuru; as well as fruit:

The Coca leafs were held in high appreciation for the stimulant properties achieved through chewing the plants' leaves.

Nowadays, Potato is one of the world's four leading crops along with maize, wheat and rice. In the Andes, the ancient Peruvians produced seven domesticated species of potato, with around 5 000 varieties and more than 200 wild species. Varieties eaten since pre-Hispanic times include the alccaihuarmi (round, floury and white), cholla huaccoto (flat, small and with a yellow core) and pucamama (round, with a purple skin, red pulp and a yellow core). In comparison, in the rest of the world there are only 750 known varieties.

Maize, or Sara in Quechua, was a vital foodstuff for ancient Peruvians, not only for its nutritional value but also because the kernels could be stored and ground into flour. Today, sweet corn is planted all over the world. Andean Man cultivated maize in different climates.

Cornstalks reached 1.5 meters in height and the plants produced ears of corn year round. Several varieties of corn were grown in pre-Hispanic times, including capia, culli, muruchuo and others. Corn was consumed, and still today, as choclo (tender kernels), mote (cooked and peeled kernels), cancha (toasted kernels) or chochoca (cooked and ground kernels). Since the dawn of time, corn has been used to make chicha or aj'a, a fermented beverage used in religious festivals.

Inca Agriculture

The Incas improved the supply of irrigation water with drainage and networks of canals, controlled flooding with dikes and dams, and built large-scale terraces for soil conservation. They used natural fertilizers, stored and selected seeds and shoots and used, as their basic tool, the taclla, or chaquitaclla, a rustic one-man plough that did not require oxen.

Water and farming chores are important, directed by the panacas or royal clans was organized among the various ayllus or communities that had settled the sacred valley of the incas. The Ayllus carried out community work and subsistence agriculture with methods based on reciprocity such as the minka and ayni.

Their duties also included feeding the Inca's court, his servants, the administrative and religious hierarchy and the army. Inca agriculture was based on a ritual calendar of great religious importance. For example, the Uma Raymi Quilla ceremony (in October) to plead for rain, included sacrificial rituals. The Aymoray Quilla (in May) celebrated the harvest, giving thanks to Pachamama, the earth goddess. The Inti Raymi festival (still celebrated every June in Cusco) worshipped the sun as the protector of fertility.

Distribution of irrigation water also had religious harmonic. It complemented the ceques system, an imaginary network of lines of sacred water that irradiated from the main temple, Qoriqancha, and connected the huacas or sacred sites that were dotted around the empire.

Many Inca agriculture achievemems continue to be the basis of agricultural activity in the Cusco area and many highland regions. There are numerous places in Cusco and its environs where one can find ancient feats of engineering related to this activity.

The set of Inca terraces and complex irrigation system via aqueducts and canals at Tipon, Pisac and Zurite terrace and circular terracing at Moray are indispensable visits for travelers who wish to take in this extraordinary aspect of the Inca Civilization.

Nowadays, the tourist offer in Cusco is varied, one of the tourist products in which we can directly experience Andean agriculture is the agrotourism that takes place in the Cusco region, also some religious festivals are related to agriculture such as The Feast of the Lord of Qoyllority.

Depending on the season of the year, one can carry out different agricultural activities such as preparing the land, planting and harvesting or harvesting; agrotourism can be done in the sacred valley of the Incas and the southern valley of Cusco.