The Sacred Valley, Cusco Region, Peru, is one of the most fertile and productive agricultural lands in the Andes, 2014.
A vibrant market scene in the town of Pisac, Sacred Valley, Cusco Region, Peru, 2014.
More than 200 varieties of corn have been domesticated by Andean farmers over millennia, 2014.
Quechua women selling corn and natural pigments at the Pisac market, Sacred Valley, Cusco Region, Peru, 2014.
Purple corn is used in the Andes to prepare a popular non-alcoholic beverage called chicha morada, 2014.
Bins of recently harvested corn in the Cusco Region of the Peruvian Andes. A source of food, drink, and offerings to their deities, corn was highly prized by the Inka. They introduced the crop to every territory of the Tawantinsuyu. Of the many varieties of Andean corn, the most revered is Mamasara (Mother Corn), a white corn grown only around Cusco. Corn is used in the Andes to make a fermented beverage called a’qa in Quechua, or chicha, in Spanish, 2015.
Several varieties of native Andean corn from Chawaytire, Cusco Region, Peru, 2016.
Beans and quinoa at a Pisac market stall, Cusco Region, Peru, 2014.
In the village of Chawaytire, Cusco Region, Peru, Quechua farmers cultivate a diversity of crops including beans, squash, and quinoa, 2015.
Quinoa is a crop that originated in the Andes of Peru and Bolivia and was domesticated by Inka ancestor cultures several thousand years ago. For the Inka, quinoa was a staple food and it continues to feature prominently in the Andean diet today. The Inka regarded quinoa as a sacred food and referred to it as chisaya mama or “mother grain” in the Quechua language. Quinoa seeds contain more nutrients than other cereals – 13% to 22% protein, high amounts of vitamins and minerals, and are low in fat. Quinoa has all the necessary amino acids that the human body needs. There are five basic varieties of quinoa and approximately 2000 species, 2014.
Quechua man finds a cart of freshly-harvested quinoa in Ollantaytambo, Cusco Region, Peru, 2014.
Yellow Andean quinoa at the Cusco market, 2014.
Women preparing a meal in the village of Chawaytire, Cusco Region, Peru, 2014.
Farmers in the Andes cultivate a variety of herbs and vegetables for food and medicinal purposes, 2015.
Andean farmers have been cultivating potatoes for thousands of years, developing hundreds of varieties that thrive in almost any climate. In the Inka Empire, potatoes sustained a rapidly growing population even when other crops failed. The Cochabamba region, now part of Bolivia, exported enormous quantities of potatoes throughout the Tawantinsuyu, 2014.
Quechua families using traditional Inka foot plows collaborate to seed a prepared field with potatoes, 2010..
Hundreds of varieties of potato are sold in Andean markets today, 2014.
Andean farmers developed freeze-drying as a means to preserve potatoes for long periods of time. Much of the potato crop during Inka times was made into chuñu, a freeze-dried food that was easy to transport and could be stored for years, 2014.
Moraya, a dehydrated potato, is a durable staple in the Andes today, 2014.
The potato plays an important role in contemporary Quechua cultural traditions. In traditional rural Andean communities, when a couple wants to get married, the man's mother presents the prospective daughter-in-law with a potato named for its ability to “make women cry.” The daughter-in-law must carefully peel the knobby tuber. If she removes more skin than is necessary, she will not be allowed to marry the woman’s son, 2014.
Guinea pigs are not pets in the Andes. Cuy, in the Quechua language, they are a traditional and important source of protein. Guinea pig and llama meat were important parts of the Inka diet, long before the Spanish conquerors introduced chicken, pigs, and cows, 2016.
A traditional Quechua meal, chiri uchu, or cold meal in Quechua, served during the Corpus Christi Catholic holiday in Peru, 2015.
Llama meat was an important part of the Inka diet. Today, llama meat is freeze-dried to make charki, and alpaca meat is served in restaurants in Cusco and other parts of Peru, 2014.
Building on thousands of years of domestication of native plants in the Andes, the Inka improved the quality and increased the variety of corn, quinoa, potato and other tubers. Llamas were a source of meat. Food diversification is key to sustainability. Variation in domesticated foods ensures that crops will survive plagues and changing climatic conditions such as drought. In this way, food biodiversity can improve nutrition and health, safeguard against hunger, strengthen local food systems, and contribute to environmental sustainability.
Video of father and son in the Andean hamlet of Toqra, Cusco Region, Peru, preparing the land to plant potatoes using an Inka plowing tool called chaquitaqlla that has been in continuous use in the Andes for more than six hundred years.
