Convolutional Neural Network Based Approach for Automatic Detection of Diseases from Pomegranate Plants

Recent advancements in Artificial Intelligence, particularly Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs), have significantly enhanced computer vision tasks, including plant disease detection. India is a global leader in pomegranate cultivation and production. Pomegranate is a vital horticultural commodity with significant export potential but is highly susceptible to various diseases, leading to substantial economic losses. Existing research on automatic pomegranate disease detection has limitations, as it typically analyzes either fruits or leaves in isolation and uses datasets with plain backgrounds that do not reflect real-world complexities such as lighting variations and overlapping foliage. This study proposes a novel hybrid deep learning approach that addresses these limitations. We utilized a hybrid CNN model specifically developed using the pomegranate dataset provided by the ICAR-National Research Centre on Pomegranate. This comprehensive collection includes 1,632 high-resolution images captured from orchards across India, categorized into three classes: healthy, bacterial diseases, and fungal diseases. Our model achieves an impressive accuracy rate of 98.46%, demonstrating its potential for real-world application in pomegranate disease detection and improved agricultural outcomes.