Scientists fromIIT Mandihave developed a computational model for automated disease detection in potato crops using photographs of its leaves. The research led by Srikant Srinivasan, associate professor, School of Computing and Electrical Engineering, IIT Mandi, in collaboration with the Central Potato Research Institute, Shimla, uses (AI) techniques to highlight the diseased portions of the leaf.
The computational tool can detect blight in potato leaf images. The model is built using an AI tool called mask region-based convolutional neural Network architecture and can accurately highlight the diseased portions of the leaf amid a complex background of plant and Soil matter.
In order to develop a robust model, healthy and diseased leaf data were collected from fields across Punjab, UP and Himachal Pradesh. It was important that the model developed should have portability across the nation.