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The agricultural history of Peru includes agriculture, cultivation of plants and herbs and general changes in the history of farming in Peru or its historical regions.
| | This article needs additional citations for verification .(January 2010) |
The agricultural history of Peru includes agriculture, cultivation of plants and herbs and general changes in the history of farming in Peru or its historical regions.
Much of the pre-history of Peru was driven by the location of farmable land. The most populated coastal regions of Peru are the two parallel mountain ranges and the series of 20 to 30 rivers descending through its coastal desert. In dry periods only the mountains had enough rainfall for agriculture while the desert coast was empty.
In wet periods many cultures thrived along the rivers. The Inca were a mountain-based culture that expanded when the climate became wetter, often sending conquered peoples down from the mountains into fallow but farmable lowlands. In contrast, the Moche were a lowland culture that died out after a strong El Niño, which caused abnormally high rainfall and floods followed by a long drought. [1]
A study reported that crops of squash, peanuts, and cotton were domesticated in Peru around 10,000, 8,500, and 6,000 years ago, respectively. They were grown by the Ñanchoc people in the Ñanchoc Valley. No earlier instances of the farming of these crops are known. [2]
Peru is both afflicted and blessed by a peculiar climate due to the Humboldt Current. Before over fishing killed its fishery, Peru had the world's most productive fishery due to the cold Current. It lifts nutrients from the Pacific floor to surface waters. On land, it results in a cold mist that covers coastal Peru to the extent that desert plants have adapted to obtain water from the air instead of from (infrequent) rainfall. The wet side soil is thin, while few rivers operate on the dry side. This means all the water must be brought from the Atlantic side of the Andean mountain ranges that split Peru.
Many obstacles limited Peru's agricultural production. Peru has always been rich in natural resources such as tin, silver, gold, guano and rubber. These resources were found, not grown. Train tracks did not connect its peoples; instead they connected the sources of these valuable resources to the sea. So few ways helped to bring agricultural products to market.
The road system is underdeveloped in Peru, e.g., offering no connection to neighboring Brazil. Only a little over a quarter of the 15th-century Inca road system has been modernized. Another obstacle is the large size of Peru's informal economy. This prevents Peru from relying on an income tax to run the government. Much of its revenue instead comes from a 13% tax on gross agricultural sales. This squeezes Peruvian farmers who must compete with farmers in countries that tax farmers on net profit. No profit, no tax.
Twenty-first century Peru grows agricultural commodities such as asparagus, potatoes, maize, rice, quinoa and coffee. [3] Peru provides half of the world supply of quinoa. [4] Peruvian agriculture uses synthetic fertilizers rather than still-abundant guano due to infrastructure issues. Peruvian maize is not exportable due to large producer subsidies in Europe and the United States. Coffee is exportable, because little is grown in those countries. In recent years Peru has become the world's primary source of high-quality organic coffee. [5] Peru does not have a quality control program such as Kenya's, but its government has worked to educate farmers on how to improve quality. Despite the glut of coffee in the market today, coffee production in Peru's unusual high altitudes and partial shade allows Coffea arabica to flourish, and it has much more of such land available than competitors such as Jamaica and Hawaii.
The ancient people of Peru built water-moving and preserving technologies like the aqueducts of Cumbe Mayo (c. 1500 BCE) and the Nazca's underground aqueducts called Puquios (date uncertain), or the terraced gardens of the Huari. Aqueducts were also utilized by the Moche. [6]
Another technique used for farming was terracing. The Chavin, [7] Moche, [6] and Incas built terraces, or andenes, into the sides of hills. The andenes reduced erosion that would normally damage a steep hill. These terraces are still used. [8] Incans irrigated their fields with a system of reservoirs and cisterns to collect water, which was then distributed by canals and ditches. [9]
However, by the mid-19th century, only 3% of Peru's land was still farmable. It lagged behind many other South American countries in agriculture.
In the 19th century the Inca fertilizer guano (saltpetre) became the most important resource in Peru's modern history, for its use as a fertilizer and as gunpowder. [10] The stock of guano built up because the Humboldt current once drew thousands of anchovies and other fish, which in turn, attracted thousands of birds. The population of white-breasted cormorants, gray pelicans and piqueros flourished due to a lack of predators. The guano (droppings) left by the birds retained its nitrate content because of the arid climate. [11] Between 1840 and 1880, Peru sold around 20 million tons of guano, mostly to Great Britain. Peru earned about 2 billion dollars in profit.
Peru lost its guano reserves to Chile (backed by the British Empire) in the War of the Pacific. [12] By the late 19th century, 50% of the Peruvian government's revenue was going to pay off loans that had been guaranteed with guano sources taken by Chile - these debts were eventually paid by sending all the remaining guano to France when it was preparing for war. The Germans invented the Haber process shortly after the outbreak of World War I, after which guano became almost worthless.
As Peru's guano reserves began to run out, the government restricted the guano industry to help stabilize the supplies. The collapse of Peru's bird population after the collapse of the fishery limited future supply of the fertilizer. [10]
Peru is one of the 5 largest producers of avocado, blueberry, artichoke and asparagus, one of the 10 largest producers in the world of coffee and cocoa, one of the 15 largest producers in the world of potato and pineapple, and also has a considerable production of grape, sugarcane, rice, banana, maize and cassava; its agriculture is considerably diversified. [13]
In 2018, Peru produced 10.3 million tons of sugarcane, 5.1 million tons of potato, 3.5 million tons of rice, 2.2 million tons of banana, 1.5 million tons of maize, 1.2 million tons of cassava, 921 thousand tons of palm oil, 645 thousand tons of grape, 548 thousand tons of pineapple, 504 thousand tons of avocado, 481 thousand tons of tangerine, 502 thousand tons of orange, 369 thousand tons of coffee, 383 thousand tons of mango, 360 thousand tons of asparagus, 270 thousand tons of lemon, 252 thousand tons of tomato, 207 thousand tons of barley, 195 thousand tons of wheat, 188 thousand tons of olives, 187 thousand tons of carrots, 175 thousand tons of papaya, 175 thousand tons of pepper, 154 thousand tons of artichoke, 140 thousand tons of apple, 134 thousand tons of cocoa, in addition to smaller productions of other agricultural products. [14]
There is also native agriculture and tools, such as the tacarpo, a tool used to cultivate Pachyrhizus tuberosus by the people in the Peruvian Amazon. [15]
The economy of Peru is an emerging, mixed economy characterized by a high level of foreign trade and an upper middle income economy as classified by the World Bank. Peru has the forty-seventh largest economy in the world by total GDP and currently experiences a high human development index. The country was one of the world's fastest-growing economies in 2012, with a GDP growth rate of 6.3%. The economy was expected to increase 9.3% in 2021, in a rebound from the COVID-19 pandemic in Peru. Peru has signed a number of free trade agreements with its main trade partners. China became the nation's largest trading partner following the China–Peru Free Trade Agreement signed on 28 April 2009. Additional free trade agreements have been signed with the United States in 2006, Japan in 2011 and the European Union in 2012. Trade and industry are centralized in Lima while agricultural exports have led to regional development within the nation.
In agriculture, a terrace is a piece of sloped plane that has been cut into a series of successively receding flat surfaces or platforms, which resemble steps, for the purposes of more effective farming. This type of landscaping is therefore called terracing. Graduated terrace steps are commonly used to farm on hilly or mountainous terrain. Terraced fields decrease both erosion and surface runoff, and may be used to support growing crops that require irrigation, such as rice. The Rice Terraces of the Philippine Cordilleras have been designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site because of the significance of this technique.
The Sacred Valley of the Incas, or the Urubamba Valley, is a valley in the Andes of Peru, north of the Inca capital of Cusco. It is located in the present-day Peruvian region of Cusco. In colonial documents it was referred to as the "Valley of Yucay". The Sacred Valley was incorporated slowly into the incipient Inca Empire during the period from 1000 to 1400.
Peruvian cuisine reflects local practices and ingredients including influences mainly from the indigenous population, including the Inca, and cuisines brought by immigrants from Europe, Asia, and Africa. Without the familiar ingredients from their home countries, immigrants modified their traditional cuisines by using ingredients available in Peru.
Agriculture, forestry, and fishing form the primary sector of industry of the Japanese economy together with the Japanese mining industry, but together they account for only 1.3% of gross national product. Only 20% of Japan's land is suitable for cultivation, and the agricultural economy is highly subsidized.
An andén, Spanish for "platform", is a stair-step like terrace dug into the slope of a hillside for agricultural purposes. The term is most often used to refer to the terraces built by pre-Columbian cultures in the Andes mountains of South America. Andenes had several functions, the most important of which was to increase the amount of cultivatable land available to farmers by leveling a planting area for crops. The best known andenes are in Peru, especially in the Sacred Valley near the Inca capital of Cuzco and in the Colca Canyon. Many andenes have survived for more than 500 years and are still in use by farmers throughout the region.
Agriculture's share of GDP has declined in recent years, falling from 42% in 1989, to 26% in 1999. In 2023, agriculture and forestry accounted for about 12% of Vietnam's gross domestic product (GDP). However, agricultural employment was much higher than agriculture's share of GDP; in 2005, approximately 60 percent of the employed labor force was engaged in agriculture, forestry, and fishing. Agricultural products accounted for 30 percent of exports in 2005. The relaxation of the state monopoly on rice exports transformed the country into the world's second or third largest rice exporter. Other cash crops are coffee, cotton, peanuts, rubber, sugarcane, and tea.
Inca cuisine originated in pre-Columbian times within the Inca civilization from the 13th to the 16th century. The Inca civilization stretched across many regions on the western coast of South America, and so there was a great diversity of unique plants and animals used for food. The most important plant staples involved various tubers, roots, and grains; and the most common sources of meat were guinea pigs, llamas, fish, and other aquatic and terrestrial organisms (305-307). Cuisine was heavily influenced by the Inca's food storage system, social gatherings and celebrations, and social status (308-315).
Inca agriculture was the culmination of thousands of years of farming and herding in the high-elevation Andes mountains of South America, the coastal deserts, and the rainforests of the Amazon basin. These three radically different environments were all part of the Inca Empire and required different technologies for agriculture. Inca agriculture was also characterized by the variety of crops grown, the lack of a market system and money, and the unique mechanisms by which the Incas organized their society. Andean civilization was "pristine"—one of six civilizations worldwide which were indigenous and not derivative from other civilizations. Most Andean crops and domestic animals were likewise pristine—not known to other civilizations. Potatoes and quinoa were among the many unique crops; Camelids and guinea pigs were the unique domesticated animals.
Angola is a potentially rich agricultural country, with fertile soils, a favourable climate, and about 57.4 million ha of agricultural land, including more than 5.0 million ha of arable land. Before independence from Portugal in 1975, Angola had a flourishing tradition of family-based farming and was self-sufficient in all major food crops except wheat. The country exported coffee and maize, as well as crops such as sisal, bananas, tobacco and cassava. By the 1990s Angola produced less than 1% the volume of coffee it had produced in the early 1970s, while production of cotton, tobacco and sugar cane had ceased almost entirely. Poor global market prices and lack of investment have severely limited the sector since independence.
Agriculture employs the majority of Madagascar's population. Mainly involving smallholders, agriculture has seen different levels of state organisation, shifting from state control to a liberalized sector.
Agriculture in Cameroon is an industry that has plenty of potential.
Agriculture in Kenya dominates Kenya's economy. 15–17 percent of Kenya's total land area has sufficient fertility and rainfall to be farmed, and 7–8 percent can be classified as first-class land. In 2006, almost 75 percent of working Kenyans made their living by farming, compared with 80 percent in 1980. About one-half of Kenya's total agricultural output is non-marketed subsistence production.
The role of agriculture in the Bolivian economy in the late 1980s expanded as the collapse of the tin industry forced the country to diversify its productive and export base. Agricultural production as a share of GDP was approximately 23 percent in 1987, compared with 30 percent in 1960 and a low of just under 17 percent in 1979. The recession of the 1980s, along with unfavorable weather conditions, particularly droughts and floods, hampered output. Agriculture employed about 46 percent of the country's labor force in 1987. Most production, with the exception of coca, focused on the domestic market and self-sufficiency in food. Agricultural exports accounted for only about 15 percent of total exports in the late 1980s, depending on weather conditions and commodity prices for agricultural goods, hydrocarbons, and minerals.
Agriculture in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is an industry in the country of the Democratic Republic of the Congo that has plenty of potential.
A qullqa (Quechua pronunciation:[ˈqʊʎˌqa] "deposit, storehouse"; was a storage building found along roads and near the cities and political centers of the Inca Empire. These were large stone buildings with roofs thatched with "ichu" grass, or what is known as Peruvian feathergrass. To a "prodigious [extent] unprecedented in the annals of world prehistory" the Incas stored food and other commodities which could be distributed to their armies, officials, conscripted laborers, and, in times of need, to the populace. The uncertainty of agriculture at the high altitudes which comprised most of the Inca Empire was among the factors which probably stimulated the construction of large numbers of qullqas.
The Andean civilizations were South American complex societies of many indigenous people. They stretched down the spine of the Andes for 4,000 km from southern Colombia, to Ecuador and Peru, including the deserts of coastal Peru, to north Chile and northwest Argentina. Archaeologists believe that Andean civilizations first developed on the narrow coastal plain of the Pacific Ocean. The Caral or Norte Chico civilization of coastal Peru is the oldest known civilization in the Americas, dating back to 3500 BCE. Andean civilizations are one of at least five civilizations in the world deemed by scholars to be "pristine." The concept of a "pristine" civilization refers to a civilization that has developed independently of external influences and is not a derivative of other civilizations.
Mozambique has a variety of regional cropping patterns; agro-climatic zones range from arid and semi-arid to the sub-humid zones to the humid highlands. The most fertile areas are in the northern and central provinces, which have high agro-ecological potential and generally produce agricultural surpluses. Southern provinces have poorer soils and scarce rainfall, and are subject to recurrent droughts and floods.
The vertical archipelago is a term coined by sociologist and anthropologist John Victor Murra under the influence of economist Karl Polanyi to describe the native Andean agricultural economic model of accessing and distributing resources. While some cultures developed market economies, the predominant models were systems of barter and shared labor. These reached their greatest development under the Inca Empire. Scholars have identified four distinct ecozones, at different elevations.
Agriculture is the main part of Tanzania's economy. As of 2016, Tanzania had over 44 million hectares of arable land with only 33 percent of this amount in cultivation. Almost 70 percent of the rich population live in rural areas, and almost all of them are involved in the farming sector. Land is a vital asset in ensuring food security, and among the nine main food crops in Tanzania are maize, sorghum, millet, rice, wheat, beans, cassava, potatoes, and bananas. The agricultural industry makes a large contribution to the country's foreign exchange earnings, with more than US$1 billion in earnings from cash crop exports.
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