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Raised fields of farmland roughly 33 feet wide—the remnants of pre-Columbian raised-field agriculture—line the banks of Rio Coata, one of the largest tributaries of Lake Titicaca on the Altiplano of Peru. At an elevation of more than 12,500 feet, high plains winters are long, summer growing seasons short, and farms tiny, typically only an acre or two. The raised fields enable farmers to grow crops in the wetlands, while the heat absorbed by the canals and the world’s highest navigable lake moderates the temperature. This system helped Aymara and Quechua farmers grow a surplus of food that supported Andean states and civilizations for the past eight thousand years. Current crops include oats (being harvested with Lake Titicaca in the background), potatoes, alfalfa, wheat, and quinoa. The growing popularity of the ancient Peruvian grain as a health food and cash crop has provided needed income to one of the poorest areas of Peru.

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Raised fields of farmland roughly 33 feet wide—the remnants of pre-Columbian raised-field agriculture—line the banks of Rio Coata, one of the largest tributaries of Lake Titicaca on the Altiplano of Peru. At an elevation of more than 12,500 feet, high plains winters are long, summer growing seasons short, and farms tiny, typically only an acre or two. The raised fields enable farmers to grow crops in the wetlands, while the heat absorbed by the canals and the world’s highest navigable lake moderates the temperature. This system helped Aymara and Quechua farmers grow a surplus of food that supported Andean states and civilizations for the past eight thousand years. Current crops include oats (being harvested with Lake Titicaca in the background), potatoes, alfalfa, wheat, and quinoa. The growing popularity of the ancient Peruvian grain as a health food and cash crop has provided needed income to one of the poorest areas of Peru.

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