Inventory of weeds associated toSolanum teberosumin the region of Souf

Abstract

In theregion of Souf, situated in the South Est of Algeria (33° to 34° N. ;6° to 8° E.), a progressive increase of the potato productive surfaces has been registered. The surface which was almost equal to 7363 ha in 2007, has in fact reached 18800 ha in 2010, with a total production of 6206320 qx. However, the intensive cultivation of potato has increased the pressure of weeds decreasing in this way the yields and depreciating the quality of tubercles. This has been translated by an intensive recourse to the dangerous herbicides. A bibliographic synthesis of the recent works of control and inventory made in the potato cultivated surfaces existing in the region of Souf has shown the presence of 12 species of weeds that can accompany the culture during all its vegetative cycle and decrease clearly its yields. On the other hand, the numbers given by the direction of agricultural services of Souf for the agricultural companion 2009–2010 has allowed as to shade the light on the six most used herbicides in the controlof weeds present in the potato surfaces. This work steels preliminary and deserves to be continued in order to discover more of species that colonize the surfaces cultivated with potato, well choose the herbicides the most efficient to fight them and improve in this way the yields.