MangoLeafNet-XAI: an attention-enhanced deep learning architecture for accurate and interpretable mango leaf disease classification

A critical challenge in agricultural automation is the precise detection of mango leaf diseases that compromise crop quality and yield. To address the limitation of existing heavy models in resource-constrained agricultural environments, this study proposes MangoLeafNet-XAI, a novel lightweight deep learning architecture. The model synergistically integrates Efficient Channel Attention (ECA) modules with a DenseNet-121 backbone to adaptively refine features and capture subtle pathological patterns with high precision. The proposed framework was rigorously evaluated using a 5-fold cross-validation and soft-voting ensemble strategy across three public datasets (MLDID, Mango Leaf Disease, and Harumanis). These datasets encompass diverse environmental conditions and distinct disease classes, including Anthracnose, Bacterial Canker, Die Back, Gall Midge, Powdery Mildew, Sooty Mould, and Cutting Weevil. MangoLeafNet-XAI achieved state-of-the-art accuracies of 98.83% on MLDID, 98.09% on the Mango Leaf Disease Dataset, and 98.76% on the Harumanis dataset. A primary contribution of this work is the optimal balance between performance and computational efficiency, utilizing only 6.9 million parameters, making it highly suitable for deployment on edge devices. Moreover, the interpretability of AI methods, such as Grad-CAM and LIME, that are used to explain the rationale behind predictions to offer pathological explanations, also validate the focus on clinically important aspects of the model. The results discuss the key limitations of existing methods, such as computational complexity, inability to interpret the findings, and dataset-dependent overfitting, and demonstrate a high level of resilience and generalizability on diverse datasets. MangoLeafNet-XAI will be a new benchmark of reliable, deployable, as well as accurate disease diagnosis systems, in smart agriculture.