Lambayeque
Lambayeque exhibits agricultural succession: Moche irrigation became Lambayeque canals, now producing 23% of Peru's sugar and the Lord of Sipán tourism draw.
Lambayeque represents archaeological and agricultural succession across three millennia—each civilization building on the irrigation infrastructure of its predecessor. The Moche engineered aqueducts and canals from 100 to 700 CE, supporting maize and cotton cultivation in the arid valleys. Their elite burial practices, revealed through the intact tomb of the Lord of Sipán discovered in 1987 at Huaca Rajada, showed a society capable of concentrating enough agricultural surplus to commission golden regalia and ceremonial sacrifice. When the Moche declined around 750 AD, the Lambayeque culture inherited and expanded their hydraulic systems.
The Spanish found these same irrigation networks productive for sugarcane. Today, Lambayeque produces 23% of Peru's sugar—second only to La Libertad's 50%—and about 11% of national rice production, roughly 330,000 metric tons during the 2024 rainy season. Empresa Agroindustrial Pomalca, based in Chiclayo, continues large-scale sugarcane milling. But the agricultural economy is diversifying: high-demand export crops like blueberries, mandarins, and avocados are displacing traditional sugarcane, following the market signal that fresh produce exports outvalue refined sugar.
The pyramids at Túcume—26 pre-Columbian structures in one complex—and the Lord of Sipán's tomb anchor a tourism economy that complements agriculture. This dual revenue stream mirrors patterns established millennia ago: the Moche extracted surplus from irrigated fields to fund pyramid construction and elite burial goods, while today's economy channels agricultural profit into tourism infrastructure. The underlying logic remains: in a desert environment, whoever controls water controls civilization.