Paddy Plant Disease Detection using Hybrid Deep Learning Algorithms

Agriculture is the backbone of India’s economy, supporting a large portion of the population and establishing the country as a key global player in food production. India ranks as the second-largest producer of both paddy and wheat. However, agricultural productivity is highly susceptible to various plant diseases, which can significantly reduce crop yields and quality. Paddy, one of the most important staple crops, is particularly vulnerable to diseases caused mainly by viral and bacterial related diseases. The climate conditions are also play a vital role in paddy plant diseases. This research work proposes a deep learning-based approach for early detection and classification of paddy diseases. The proposed research devises a hybrid model that combines the VGG19 and ResNet50 algorithms, the system analyses images of both healthy and disease-affected paddy leaves, sourced from the Kaggle repository. This research focuses on predicting four major paddy diseases that can cause yield losses of up to 80%, and in severe cases, can destroy an entire crop: (i) Paddy Blast, (ii) Bacterial Leaf Blight, (iii) Sheath Blight, and (iv) Ufra Disease. The proposed model achieves a high accuracy rate of 98% in predicting paddy diseases and offers a rapid classification process, showcasing the potential of advanced image processing and deep learning techniques to mitigate the impact of paddy plant diseases on agricultural productivity.