ABSTRACT
For the past 10,000 years, agriculture has provided much of the food needed by urban and rural communities. The ability of a community to manage climate variability and soil sustainability has in°uenced its long-term success. The inability to manage climate variability of the adoption of non-sustainable practices can result in societal collapse. Precision farming is one tool that can increase energy efciency as well as maintain productivity and the soil resource. The concepts of precision farming and efciency are not new and have been used to manage variability and resource allocations since antiquity. One of the most successful peoples for managing variability were the Incas in South America. Over 500 years ago, the Incas, indigenous peoples of the Andes region in the South America, developed agricultural management practices for one of the world’s most extremely variable climates. These peoples conducted agriculture activities from sea level to over 4400 m. Extreme climatic variability in rainfall and temperatures were observed across these elevations. The Incas relied on grain storage capacity and research, most likely conducted at Moray agricultural station (located near present-day Cuzco, Peru), to help them manage climatic uncertainty. Many of the activities they implemented could be viewed
15.1 Executive Summary ...................................................................................... 255 15.2 Historical Perspectives of Geospatial Nutrient Management .......................256
