page_title: Andean agriculture
section_title: Tools and crops
hierarchical_section_title: Andean agriculture / Tools and crops
caption_attribution_description: Ulluco tubers (Ullucus tuberosus) for sale in southern Peru
context_page_description: Current agricultural practices of the Andean region of South America typically involve a synthesis of traditional Incan practices and modern techniques to deal with the unique terrain and climatic elements of the area. Millions of farmers in economically impoverished communities make a living producing staple crops such as potato, olluco, and mashua for their own consumption as well as profit in local and urban markets. The Andean region is particularly known for its wide variety of potato species, boasting over about 5,000 varieties identified by the International Potato Center based in Peru. These crops are arranged within the mountains and plateaus of the Andes in four distinct landscape-based units described as Hill, Ox Area, Early Planting, and Valley which overlap one another in a patchwork-styles of plateau surfaces, steep slopes, and wetland patches. Within each of these units, farmers classify soil types as either puna, suni.
  Andean farmers must contend with the severe fluctuations in temperature, the unpredictability of the rainy season, and a multitude of pest threats on the daily.
context_section_description: As one of the major cradles of agriculture, the Andean region, has many indigenous crop species which have persisted and diversified for generations. These crops and tools include:
  Tools
  Chaki taklla (Chakitaqlla): Modified stick tool used from tilling, adapted to manage a variety of soil
  d terrain types.
  Crops
  Maize
  Quinoa (Chenopodium quinoa)
  Amaranth
  Potato
  Solanum ajanhuiri
  S. chaucha
  S. juzepzucki
  S. phureja
  S. stenotomum
  S. tuberosum
  Oca (Oxalis tuberosa)
  Olluco (Ullucus tuberosus)
  Mashua (Tropaeolum tuberosum)
  Yacon  (Smallanthus sonchifolius)
  Coca (Family: Erythroxylaceae)
caption: Ulluco: Common crop of the Andean region
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