Detection of whitefly pests in crops employing image enhancement and machine learning

Abstract

The domain of agriculture is seeing a paradigm shift with the increasing use of technology. Employing robotics, automation and communication technology has opened a completely new field termed as precision agriculture [1]. One of the major challenges which agriculturists face is the attack of pests on the crops which can severely damage the crops and subsequent yield. Different crops are subjected to infestations by variety of pests. Due to the rapid multiplication of pests, it becomes necessary to devise mechanisms for quick and accurate detection. Manual detection is often a tedious and time consuming job, which becomes even more difficult if the farm size is large. Thus, accurate automated systems are necessary for pest infestation detection.