Terrace ( agriculture ) - wikipedia Terrace ( agriculture ) For other uses, see Terrace ( disambiguation ). This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. ( October 2013 ) Play media Rice terrace in Indonesia Diagram showing Inca terrace engineering for agriculture. 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, therefore, is 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. Terraced paddy fields are used widely in rice, wheat and barley farming in east, south, and southeast Asia, as well as other places. Drier - climate terrace farming is common throughout the Mediterranean Basin, e.g., in Cadaqués, Catalonia, where they were used for vineyards, olive trees, cork oak, etc., on Mallorca, and in Cinque Terre, Italy. In the South American Andes, farmers have used terraces, known as andenes, for over a thousand years to farm potatoes, maize, and other native crops. Terraced farming was developed by the Wari culture and other peoples of the south - central Andes before 1000 AD, centuries before they were used by the Inca, who adopted them. The terraces were built to make the most efficient use of shallow soil and to enable irrigation of crops. The Inca built on these, developing a system of canals, aqueducts, and puquios to direct water through dry land and increase fertility levels and growth. These terraced farms are found wherever mountain villages have existed in the Andes. They provided the food necessary to support the populations of great Inca cities and religious centres such as Machu Picchu. Terracing is also used for sloping terrain ; the Hanging Gardens of Babylon may have been built on an artificial mountain with stepped terraces, such as those on a ziggurat. At the seaside Villa of the Papyri in Herculaneum, the villa gardens of Julius Caesar 's father - in - law were designed in terraces to give pleasant and varied views of the Bay of Naples. Terraced fields are common in islands with steep slopes. The Canary Islands present a complex system of terraces covering the landscape from the coastal irrigated plantations to the dry fields in the highlands. These terraces, which are named cadenas ( chains ), are built with stone walls of skillful design, which include attached stairs and channels. In Old English, a terrace was also called a `` lynch '' ( lynchet ). An example of an ancient Lynch Mill is in Lyme Regis. The water is directed from a river by a duct along a terrace. This set - up was used in steep hilly areas in the UK. Gallery Terraced fields in Sa Pa, Vietnam. Tetang Village terraced fields, Mustang District Terraced fields in the Upper Mustang region of Nepal Terraced field in Kabal Swat valley, Pakistan. Terraced farmland in Peru, adopted by the Inca. Terraced hay fields in the Upper Mississippi River basin during the 1930s. Rice terrace in Bali Jatiluwih rice terrace in Bali, Indonesia. The Batad Rice Terraces in Ifugao, Philippines. Rice cultivation, Lower Himalayas, Nepal. Longsheng Rice Terrace in Longsheng county, Guangxi Province, southern China. Abstract pattern of terraced rice fields in Yuanyang County, Yunnan, China Image from Yuanyang, showing the rice terrace walls after harvest, weed removal, flooding and plowing. Terrace fields in Northern Thailand at the end of the dry season Lynchet system near Bishopstone in Wiltshire Terrace vineyard in the coteaux du Layon on the commune of Faye - d'Anjou, Maine - et - Loire, France See also Anden Banaue Rice Terraces Rice Terraces of the Philippine Cordilleras Satoyama Terrace garden References Jump up ^ `` World Heritage List ''. UNESCO. Retrieved 2012 - 09 - 22. they are Broad flat steps Jump up ^ `` Farming Like the Incas ''. Smithsonian Magazine. Retrieved 2015 - 09 - 20. Jump up ^ Whittington, G. ( 1967 - 01 - 01 ). `` Towards a Terminology for Strip Lynchets ''. The Agricultural History Review. 15 ( 2 ) : 103 -- 107. External links Wikimedia Commons has media related to Agricultural terraces. Terrace Fields around the World NDL : 01105068 Retrieved from `` https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Terrace_(agriculture)&oldid=796554478 '' Categories : Infrastructure Agricultural terminology Agricultural terraces Hidden categories : Articles needing additional references from October 2013 All articles needing additional references All articles with unsourced statements Articles with unsourced statements from February 2011 Articles containing video clips Talk About Wikipedia Bân - lâm - gú Беларуская Català Čeština Deutsch Español Esperanto Français Galego ગુજરાતી 한국어 हिन्दी Bahasa Indonesia Italiano עברית Nederlands 日本 語 Polski Português Русский Simple English Suomi Svenska Türkçe Українська Tiếng Việt 中文 Edit links This page was last edited on 21 August 2017, at 17 : 00. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution - ShareAlike License ; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. 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Question: explain the role of terrace cultivation on hilly areas
Answer: decrease both erosion and surface runoff