Coffee Rust Severity Analysis in Agroforestry Systems Using Deep Learning in Peruvian Tropical Ecosystems

Agroforestry systems can influence the occurrence and abundance of pests and diseases because integrating crops with trees or other vegetation can create diverse microclimates that may either enhance or inhibit their development. This study analyzes the severity of coffee rust in two agroforestry systems in the provinces of Jaén and San Ignacio in the department of Cajamarca (Peru). This research used a quantitative descriptive approach, and 319 photographs were collected with a professional camera during field trips. The photographs were segmented, classified and analyzed using the deep learning MobileNet and VGG16 transfer learning models with two methods for measuring rust severity from SENASA Peru and SENASICA Mexico. The results reported that grade 1 is the most prevalent rust severity according to the SENASA methodology (1 to 5% of the leaf affected) and SENASICA Mexico (0 to 2% of the leaf affected). Moreover, the proposed MobileNet model presented the best classification accuracy rate of 94% over 50 epochs. This research demonstrates the capacity of machine learning algorithms in disease diagnosis, which could be an alternative to help experts quantify the severity of coffee rust in coffee trees and broadens the field of research for future low-cost computational tools for disease recognition and classification