A CNN-Driven Image Analysis Approach for Accurate Detection of Plant Leaf Diseases

Abstract

Plant leaf diseases are a key concern for agriculture and result in significant loss of crop yield and economic losses globally. It is vital to efficiently and accurately detect plant diseases to properly manage crops and control their diseases. This paper demonstrates a CNN-based image analysis model to automatically identify and classify plant leaf diseases from digital images. Deep learning is used in the proposed method to spontaneously learn hierarchical features from original image data, without the use of feature engineering. The model was trained and evaluated on a collection of high-resolution healthy and diseased leaf images collected from different plant species. Preprocessing (normalisation, noise filtering, and contrast increment) and data augmentation (rotations, scale changes, and flips) were also performed on the pre-processed images, and it was expected to achieve good generalisation and reduce overfitting. The CNN architecture was optimised using transfer learning in combination with hyperparameter tuning. Evaluation experiments showed that the framework attained a classification “accuracy of 96.2%, 95.8% precision, 96.5% recall, and 96.1% F1-score”. The model proved to be robust under varying light conditions and complex background settings, demonstrating its real-world applicability. In addition, the model’s lightweight architecture supports mobile and edge computing implementation, enabling real-time and on-site diagnostic capabilities. This method provides an automated, scalable system for plant disease detection, thus enabling early intervention, reducing chemical treatment reliance, and fostering sustainable agricultural practices, fostering environmentally friendly approaches. The results demonstrated the capability of CNN systems towards transforming the plant health monitoring practices in precision agriculture.