F
FARMING
Farming in the Andes dates back millennia. Although the Incas neither added to
the technological repertoire nor domesticated new plants, they did take
agriculture to a scale never before seen in the Andes, thanks largely to an
enormous labor force that built the terraces and irrigation systems and harvested
the fields.
Fields in the altiplano of Ayaviri, Puno, Peru, prepared for sowing potatoes.
Eusebio Quispe. TAFOS Photographic Archive/PUCP, Lima, Peru.Farming was done in a variety of ways, especially in the highlands. People
practiced agriculture in three main zones, corresponding to altitude and regimes
of temperature and rainfall. The lowest zone was the yunga, where warm
temperature crops such as cotton, manioc, and sweet potato thrived. Irrigation
was usually required for such crops as rainfall was insufficient or irregular. Mid-