Qullqa

A qullqa (Quechua pronunciation: [ˈqʊʎˌqa] "deposit, storehouse";[1] (spelling variants: colca, collca, qolca, qollca) was a storage building found along roads and near the cities and political centers of the Inca Empire.

To a "prodigious [extent] unprecedented in the annals of world prehistory" the Incas stored food and other commodities which could be distributed to their armies, officials, conscripted laborers, and, in times of need, to the populace.

The uncertainty of agriculture at the high altitudes which comprised most of the Inca Empire was among the factors which probably stimulated the construction of large numbers of qullqas.

[5] The response of the Incas to the challenges of their environment and technology was a huge and well-organized system of qullqas to collect and store food and other items during good harvest years for distribution when needed.

At Wanuku Pampa in north central Peru, a major Inca administrative and storage area, 50 to 80 percent of the qullqas were used to store dried potatoes and other root crops.

[8] Additional agriculture products stored in qullqas consisted of quinoa, beans, other vegetables, dried meat (Ch'arki or jerky), and seeds.

[9] The scope of the Inca's commitment for storage is described by Pedro Sánchez de la Hoz the first Spanish chronicler to visit the Inca capital of Cuzco who said that in the city «[there are] storehouses full of blankets, wool, weapons, metals and clothes and of everything that is grown and made in this realm ... and there is a house in which are kept more than 100,000 dried birds, for from their feathers articles of clothing are made.

There are shields, beams for supporting house roofs, knives, and other tools; sandals and armor for the people of war in such quantity that it is not possible to comprehend.»[10][11] The economy of the Inca Empire was to a large extent redistributive.

"[12] Under the mit'a system, citizens were required to contribute labor to the Empire and the resultant production of food, textiles, and other goods were stored by the State to be distributed as needed.

The largest remaining number of qullqas is in the Mantaro River valley between the present days cities of Huancayo and Jauja, Peru.

[19] Cochabamba in present day Bolivia, at a relatively low elevation of 2,500 metres (8,200 ft) was developed as a state farm by the Incas for maize production.