The issue of the sustainable development of livestock systems in Algeria is part of the way to resolve the issue of the growing gap between forage supply and the needs of a growing livestock herd.

The study undertaken is a contribution to the agro-morphological characterization of vetch and the determination of its place in the feeding of animals and also to highlighting the current situation of forage (cultivated and natural) - case of the vetch - in the semi-arid zone of Setif.

In this study where the general objective is to characterize agro-morphologically the species of vetch the same variables used were included for two statistical analysis approaches, the first descriptive and the second discriminant, which are Variance study and  comparison of means and discriminate factor analysis (AFD) whose results corroborate. These analysis have detected significant differences of the input of the three species where the third one (V. sativa) which is obvious from all the variables by: Nr, Lrp, Ngrg, Ngrp, Pgrp and for the two sites involved (Northern and Centre of Setif). It is also clear from these analyzes that the variables that have the most weight or the most relevant in discriminating between the three species are Ngrp , Nfr, Lrp and Ngp. Variety evaluation allowed to see a lack of distinction between the varieties of the two introduced species 1 and 2 (V. ervilia and V. narbonensis); a difference of 70 % was found between the varieties of local specie 3 (V. sativa). On the other hand, we can assume that these "emerging" varieties of species 3 (José, fig and even Baraka, 715 and 709) exhibit a fairly large phenotypic diversity that can provide a broad genetic base that can potentially serve in improvement programs.

In view of the great variability observed in many traits measured for the three vetches studied, this offers the possibility of choosing the species suitable for the development of the forage area in semi-arid zones, depending on the climatic characteristics and different production systems; especially if the introduced varieties do not meet the conditions of the region.

So we can infer that these three species have different uses for their agronomic traits related to biomass production and grain yield, they have considerable potential fodder, especially V.sativa  which we can offer as complete feed for use on different forms.