Enhancing plant disease detection through deep learning: a Depthwise CNN with squeeze and excitation integration and residual skip connections

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This study proposes an advanced method for plant disease detection utilizing a modified depthwise convolutional neural network (CNN) integrated with squeeze-and-excitation (SE) blocks and improved residual skip connections. In light of increasing global challenges related to food security and sustainable agriculture, this research focuses on developing a highly efficient and accurate automated system for identifying plant diseases, thereby contributing to enhanced crop protection and yield optimization. The proposed model is trained on a comprehensive dataset encompassing various plant species and disease categories, ensuring robust performance and adaptability. By evaluating the model with online random images, demonstrate its significant adaptability and effectiveness in overcoming key challenges, such as achieving high accuracy and meeting the practical demands of agricultural applications. The architectural modifications are specifically designed to enhance feature extraction and classification performance, all while maintaining computational efficiency. The evaluation results further highlight the model’s effectiveness, achieving an accuracy of 98% and an F1 score of 98.2%. These findings emphasize the model’s potential as a practical tool for disease identification in agricultural applications, supporting timely and informed decision-making for crop protection.