Terracing and irrigation in the Peruvian highlands

Agricultural terraces in the Colca Valley of southern Peru facilitate the irrigation necessary for agriculture in this semiarid environment. Terrace expansion and contraction, in turn, are closely related to the availability of water. In the short term, households abandon terraces because of constraints in the system of water distribution. In the longer term, periodic droughts trigger water conservation practices which curtain expansion and lead to terrace abandonment. During periods of relative water abundance, constraints are relaxed, allowing new terraces to be constructed and abandoned ones rebuilt. Cyclical patterns of terrace contraction and expansion suggest that repeated observations of land use over time are necessary for an understanding of agricultural intensification and deintensification in the Central Andes.

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