ABSTRACT
Most agricultural intensification in pre-Hispanic times took the form of irrigation or raised field systems. Both increased production, but in different niches and with different technologies, and with different efficiencies in terms of land and labor. Much of the organization of irrigation production was in the hands of religious orders, which located potential canals, supervised their maintenance, controlled the appropriate lands, and managed the Indian or black slave labor. Evidence for pre-Hispanic maize irrigation was found in the valleys of Pimampiro, Atuntaqui, El Quinche, and Pomasqui as well as in Chambo and San Andres farther south. The area cultivated, elevation, and precipitation are not much different than other plausibly pre-Hispanic areas of maize irrigation. In Chimborazo province, the Inca had maize fields "past the Chambo bridge," in an area which is the irrigated maize and vegetable producing district of Chambo.
