Terrace (earthworks)

A terrace in agriculture is a flat surface that has been cut into hills or mountains to provide areas for the cultivation for crops, as a method of more effective farming.

In the 2000s new designs of wheels and tires, tracks, etc, and incorporation of electronics for better and safer control, allowed these machines to operate on slopes greater than 20% with various implements such as reaper-harvesters, rakes, balers, and transport trailers.

[citation needed] In the South American Andes, farmers have used terraces, known as andenes, for over a thousand years to farm potatoes, maize, and other native crops.

[9] The Inca people built on these, developing a system of canals, aqueducts, and puquios to direct water through dry land and increase fertility levels and growth.

In Japan, some of the 100 Selected Terraced Rice Fields (in Japanese: 日本の棚田百選一覧), from Iwate in the north to Kagoshima in the south, are slowly disappearing, but volunteers are helping the farmers both to maintain their traditional methods and for sightseeing purposes.

The Canary Islands present a complex system of terraces covering the landscape from the coastal irrigated plantations to the dry fields in the highlands.

Archaeologists Gibson and Edelstein conducted research on terrace systems in the Rephaim valley, proposing that the ones in Khirbet er-Ras were built during the Iron Age II, whereas those in Ein Yael were linked to the Second Temple and Roman periods.

[14] A 2014 research study on terraces near Ramat Rachel, using Optically Stimulated Luminescence (OSL), yielded dates ranging from the Hellenistic period to Mamluk and Ottoman times.

[16] However, the study's ability to precisely determine the original construction date remains uncertain, as the results could also reflect subsequent agricultural modifications that affected exposure to sunlight.