Agriculture was the mainstay of the economy of the Inca empire. Production was varied and the most important crops were corn and potatoes. The Incas applied agricultural techniques improved crop yields. In the arid zone of the coast used the guano-sea-bird droppings to fertilize the land and building of irrigation canals.
To develop in the Andes a predominantly agricultural society, the Incas were able to maximize the ground, overcoming adversity that offered them the rugged Andean terrain and inclement weather. The adaptation of agricultural techniques already used in different parts previously allowed the Incas to organize the production of various products, both on the coast, mountains and jungle, to redistribute to people without access to other regions.
Technological achievements, made at the farm level would not have been possible without the work force was available to the Inca, and the road network allowing proper storage resources and harvested and spread throughout the territory. Inca agricultural development and the techniques used were so effective that many experts believe that by re-using today's problems would be solved nutrition of the people of the Andes for decades.
Inca hand tools used in agriculture have not been overcome, especially when it comes to working in the Andean slopes or in limited areas such as sidewalks. The ancient Peruvians of Cusco, having no team at the lack of animals to make their farming used, the human-powered plow they called the tajlla or chaquitaqlla, a pointed stick, with a slightly curved tip, which Sometimes it was of stone or metal. Prior to his terminal had another stick cross tool in the farmer support your foot to sink into the ground and then make the groove.
The importance of agriculture led the Indians to find fertilizer for their crops. The information we have on fertilizers comes from the coast and shows the use of renewable natural resources. In the arid zone of the coast used the guano-sea-bird droppings to fertilize the land and building of irrigation canals.
The Incas had a special concern to find ways to improve soil conditions for agriculture. Among the most known are the construction of terraces, that during the Inca government was given great importance. While demanding mobilize large amounts of labor, the Inca state could do with relative ease.
The platforms are artificial agricultural terraces that serve as useful land for planting on the steep slopes of the Andes. Make better use of water allowed in both rain and irrigation, making it circulate through the channels that connected the various levels, this measure while avoiding hydraulic soil erosion. The platform not only good for growing corn, but for growing various agricultural products, and even for different uses: crops, to prevent erosion, to wash the salt mineral.
The platforms have received extensive research and even now reconstitute it for the benefit of agriculture. They can cultivate the steep slopes of the streams and prevent erosion by the rains.
The ridges were constructed artificial surfaces on the shores of Lake Titicaca. It was dirt mounds that allow store and make better use of water in places of frequent floods from the rains. They used a variety of agricultural techniques on the ridges, including the drawing of artificial grooves to provide protection to plants, facilitate drainage during the rains, flooding, irrigation, fertilizer sources, and especially to decrease the bitter cold night in the highest, thus avoiding frost.
To exploit the territory of the plateau and adapting agriculture to extreme weather conditions this region has created both the ridges as ponds or lakes. The lakes are composed of multiple concave grooves. Water should not welled more than one day, because that can cause crops to rot. In its edges grow grasses that feed the cattle. This technology is used extensively today.
The canals and water intakes knowledge allowed irrigation and farming, especially maize. The Peruvian coast is characterized by dilated deserts cut by rivers running down the mountains and flows which allow the emergence of agriculture. The coast was the largest hydraulic engineers as they refined and quite sophisticated managed irrigation methods, especially the Mochica and Chimu later. In Cusco, the two streams are channeled through the town, paved their banks and building bridges for pedestrians. An example of technology is Cumbemayo mountain, in Cajamarca, channel carved in stone. The importance of hydraulic manifested in the many myths that recount the origins of such works.
Along with the livestock, agriculture was the basis of the Inca economy. The people who inhabited the Andean area and acclimatize managed to domesticate a variety of products to various conditions, taking advantage of land considered to be rather difficult for agricultural production. The main product was cultivated potato, with which different types of potato flour prepared, also as mashua tubers, olluco and oca. The corn was considered a luxury type resource that gave prestige and was grown bureaucratic purposes, military and ceremonial. On the coast grew sweet potatoes, beans and so forth. It is estimated that the Inca cultivated around seventy species of plants, including potatoes, sweet potatoes, corn, peppers, cotton, tomato, groundnut, oca and quinoa.
The inhabitants of the Andes succeed in overcoming the difficulties of the environment with their ingenuity. On the slopes of the ravines sophisticated platforms built on the coast and in the mountains and water channels constructed in the desolate wastelands of ridges and used cars to increase humidity. Thus, in spite of those environments so hard and difficult, the inventiveness of man to achieve the Andes one of the most important world centers for air conditioning plant to benefit to mankind, including edible plants and necessary to cure diseases.
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