Inca agriculture

Inca agriculture was the result of many years of farming and raising animals in the high mountains of the Andes, the coastal deserts, and the rainforests of the Amazon basin. These areas are very different, and the Inca people needed special ways to grow food in each place. The Inca Empire existed from 1438 to 1533 CE and included all these areas.

The Inca people grew many different crops and raised special animals that were not found in other parts of the world. Potatoes and quinoa were two important crops, and they raised llamas, alpacas, and guinea pigs.

Farming was very important to the Inca people. They had to deal with difficult mountains and weather, but they used clever methods to grow food in dry, cold, and hot places. They shared this food with villages that could not grow it themselves. This was possible because of the hard work of people, a big network of roads, and special storage buildings called qullqas.

Environment

The Inca Empire was centered in the high mountains of the Andes in Peru. These mountains are very high, often above 3,000 meters, with little rain, cold temperatures, and thin soil. It can get very cold there any time of year.

To the west of the Andes is a very dry desert coast along the Pacific Ocean. Farming there needed water from rivers that began in the Andes. To the east are the foothills above the Amazon Basin, a warm, rainy area with lots of plants.

Organization

In the Inca Empire, society was well-organized. Land was shared among the emperor, the state religion, and the farmers. Each farmer received land based on their family and status, and they grew food to support themselves. Instead of paying taxes, farmers worked on the emperor’s and state lands for a certain time each year. The Incas gave them seeds, fertilizer, and tools for these lands, and the farmers provided their labor. Communities were mostly self-sufficient, growing many crops, raising animals, and making clothes.

Private estates belonged to emperors, especially in the Sacred Valley near Cuzco. These estates were passed down to their descendants. Places like Machu Picchu were royal estates. In some areas, like Cochabamba in Bolivia, special farms grew maize, a valued crop that couldn’t grow in higher mountains. On the desert coast, people focused more on farming and fishing, trading between these groups.

Food security

In the Andes mountains, farmers faced cool weather, little flat land, and changing climates. The Incas and local leaders used smart methods to make sure there was always enough food. One key method was the vertical archipelago, where they grew crops at different heights to suit each climate. By having farms at many elevations, they could grow a variety of foods and share them among communities instead of selling them.

The Incas built thousands of storage buildings called qullqa to keep food safe for years. They used cool hillside locations, drainage canals, and gravel floors to protect the food from spoiling. They stored dried meat, special potatoes called chuño, maize, and quinoa to feed the army and people during bad harvest years. Farmers also planted many different crops in scattered plots and built terraces called andenes to make more land usable and protect crops from cold and heavy rain. On the coast, they used irrigation to grow crops, and traded goods with each other even though they used shells and gold as money. The Incas moved goods using llama caravans, like transporting maize from farms to centers such as Paria and then to Cuzco.

Main article: vertical archipelago
Main articles: qullqa · chuño · quinoa · quipu · andenes · Waru Waru

Crops

Further information: New World crops

The Inca people grew many important foods in the high mountains, coastal areas, and rainforests. One main crop was potatoes, grown from about 1,000 meters to 3,900 meters high. Quinoa was another important food, grown between 2,300 meters and 3,900 meters. Maize was a key crop, grown up to 3,200 meters, and even higher in some good spots. Near the Pacific Ocean, cotton was widely grown, up to about 1,500 meters. In the eastern Andes mountains, coca was grown, and in the Amazon lowlands, cassava was a major crop. Other root crops like oca, mashua, and maca were also planted.

Besides these main crops, the Inca people also grew many fruits, vegetables, spices, and plants used for medicine. Some of these included tomatoes, chili peppers, avocadoes, and peanuts. They also grew many fruit trees, such as banana passionfruit from 2,000 to 3,200 meters, mountain papaya from 500 to 2,700 meters, naranjilla from 500 to 2,300 meters, and Cape gooseberry from 500 to 2,800 meters.

Animal husbandry

The Inca people raised many animals, including llamas and alpacas, which they often took from groups they conquered. These animals lived high in the Andes mountains, sometimes more than 4,000 meters above sea level. Llamas and alpacas gave the Incas wool, meat, leather, and helped carry goods. The Incas also kept ducks and guinea pigs for food. Raising these animals, especially llamas and alpacas, was very important to the Inca way of life.

Farming tools

Inca farmers did not have animals to help with farming, so they used simple tools made by hand. These tools were perfect for the steep mountains and special flat areas called andenes where they grew crops.

Some of their main tools were:

• Chaki taklla, a foot plough made from a wooden pole with a sharp point. Farmers would step on it to push it into the ground and make a furrow to plant seeds.
• Rawk'ana, a hoe made from thin wood, used for harvesting tubers, removing weeds, and planting small seeds.
• Waqtana, a tool for breaking up clumps of soil.

These tools were used for many years by farmers in the Andes. They also used stone or clay tools, like a mortar and pestle, to grind grains, and stoves to cook food over fires.

Farming was a happy activity, with teams of men and women working together, singing and chanting as they prepared the fields.

Land use

Inca farmers were very clever at using the land to grow lots of food. They built stone terraces on the mountainsides to stop the soil from washing away and to keep the plants warm at night and moist during the day. One special place called Tipón had very tall terrace walls and clever canals to carry water to the plants. The Inca used water from melting glaciers and built special irrigation canals and cisterns to store and move water to their fields. They also cleared out wetlands to reach the rich soil underneath and used crop rotation to keep the soil healthy and grow better crops each year.