Several types of fertilizers were used across the Inca Empire. In coastal regions, small fish such as Peruvian anchoveta and sardines were buried with maize kernels to spur their growth. This practice was represented in the walls of the Pachacamac temple, where maize plants were shown germinating out of small fishes. Coastal farmers also used guano produced by the thousands of marine birds that nested on offshore islands and isolated parts of the littoral. In the rest of the empires, farmers had to resort to other types of fertilizers, including manure from domesticated camelids and fallen leaves from trees such as guarango.
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