A Critical Implementation Strategy Proposed for Continuous Monitoring of Minerals in the Soil and to Identify the Diseases of Banana Plant Using Support Vector Machine

The algorithm for obtaining data on temperature, relative humidity and precipitation is as follows:

1) Initial data includes real-time data for temperature, precipitation and relative humidity. Data’s output to the gateway node.

2) Data received from each sensor is extracted and transmitted to the gateway node.

3) Activate a sleep thread every 20 minutes.

4) Repeat from step 3. Receive temperature, precipitation and relative humidity and sensor data for every 20 min. The time interval is determined by the requirements of banana growers and agronomists. After reading the data, the node goes into sleep mode for the next 20 minutes. Rain sensors are utilized to determine rainfall occurrence on the field, which is crucial during the rainy season. These readings provide accurate warnings for Sigatoka disease. The soil moisture algorithm operates similarly, triggering an alert to start the water pump when the soil moisture falls outside a specific range [7].

The algorithm for Sigatoka disease alert is as follows:

1) Initial inputs include real-time readings from temperature, rainfall sensors and relative humidity. Generates Sigatoka disease attack alerts.

2) Compare real-time input values to thresholds stored in the database.

3) Continuously calculate the total number of weather data over a six-day period.

4) If the cumulative count exceeds 36 within two days, the disease severity is significant; if it exceeds 36 within four days, the severity is moderate; if it exceeds 36 within six days, the severity is normal.

5) Inform the farmer about the disease attack and its severity is based on the total number of cases. Using the above-described technique, we alert farmers to the occurrence of Sigatoka disease. This algorithm is continuously executed based on real-time field readings. The cumulative count increases by one when the temperature, relative humidity, and rainfall measurements surpass the threshold values. These counts are accumulated over a six-day period. If the count reaches 36 within two days, it indicates that the farm has experienced two days of favorable weather conditions for Sigatoka disease, such as high or extremely high relative humidity, rainfall, and suitable temperatures. Thanks to the algorithm's continuous and accurate monitoring of the WSN (Wireless Sensor Network), crop losses caused by disease attacks are prevented, and farmers receive timely warnings [8].

Bananas are highly susceptible to a range of diseases caused by fungi, bacteria, and viruses. These diseases can have significant effect on the yield and quality of the banana crops, leading to reduced incomes for farmers and higher prices for consumers. Therefore, it is essential to monitor and manage the health of banana plants to ensure a healthy harvest.

It is caused by a type of fungus called Fusarium oxysporum f.sp.cubense and it is one of the most destructive diseases of the banana crops. The fungus infects the roots of the plant, causing them to rot and preventing the uptake of water and nutrients. This leads to wilting, yellowing, and ultimately death of plant. Panama disease can be spread through contaminated soil, water, and plant material, making it challenging to control. However, by using good sanitation practices, such as removing and destroying infected plant material, farmers can reduce spread of  diseases. Additionally, monitoring the nitrogen and phosphorus levels in the soil can help prevent Panama disease, as these minerals have been shown to reduce the severity of the disease.

Now the culture is endangered by different diseases. At the moment, the use of pesticides is more efficient, but increasing the use of pesticides can treat the environment. To overcome this we can there is another way by using biological control by using natural enemies of these particular pests and it is observed that Bacillus species are more effective role of biogents [9].

Microbial inoculants and organic fertilizers have been identified for productivity and Growing plants; it is recognized worldwide as an alternative source of fertiliser. Rhizobacteria suitable for plant growth (PGPR) are used to improve nutrients and other sources of fertiliser. PGPR can improve bacterial colonization at the root surface and places where there are more microbial cells were present [10].

The diseases of banana plant are as follows as – Black Sigatoka, Panama Wilt / Banana Wilt Disease (BXW), Banana Bunchy Top (BBTV), Rhizome rot, Anthracnose, Moko disease, Tip Over, BBMV - Banana bract mosaic virus, BSV - Banana streak disease, CMV - Infectious chlorosis.

i. Black Sigatoka, Mycosphaerella leaf spot:

Black Sigatoka is another significant threat to banana crops worldwide. It is caused by the fungus Mycosphaerella fijiensis, which infects the leaves of the plant, leading to premature death of the leaf. This reduces the photosynthetic capacity of the plant, which in turn reduces yield. Black Sigatoka can be managed through the use of fungicides, planting disease-resistant cultivars, and maintaining proper nutrition levels in the soil. By monitoring soil minerals such as nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium, farmers can ensure that their banana plants have the necessary nutrients to resist the disease.

ii. Bunchy Top (or) Curly Top:

Banana Bunchy Top Virus (BBTV) is a viral disease that affects the entire banana plant. The virus causes stunted growth, yellowing of the leaves, and a bunchy appearance at the top of the plant. BBTV is primarily spread by the banana aphid, which feeds on infected plants and then spreads the virus to healthy plants. There is no cure for BBTV, and infected plants must be removed and destroyed to stop the spread of diseases. However, farmers can reduce the danger of BBTV by using virus-free planting material, planting disease-resistant cultivars, and controlling the banana aphid population through the use of insecticides.

iii. Panama Wilt(or) Banana Wilt Disease (BXW):

Banana Wilt Disease (BXW) is caused by the bacterium Xanthomonas campestris and is characterized by wilting and death of the entire banana plant. The bacteria can be transmitted through contaminated soil, water, and plant material, and can persist in soil for several years. There is no known cure for BXW, and infected plants must be removed and destroyed to stop the wide spread of the disease. Monitoring levels of the potassium in the soil can help prevent BXW, as potassium has been shown to reduce the severity of the disease.

iv. Rhizome Rot:

The Symptoms of Rhizome Rot: Erwinia chrysanthemum disease are as follows - This type of disease is more noticeable in the young shoots, causing rot and rotting spells to be released, the breaking of pseudostem is familiar in later stages of infection in cultivars robusta grand nine, Early in the infection, the dark brown (or) yellow watery areas become larger in the cortex.

The management of Rhizome Rot will be as follows – Rotation of crop with sugarcane or rice should be for 3 to 4 years, you must ensure that only planted dip suckers or healthy suckers in copper oxychloride, (0.5g/lr) + monocrotophos 2.5ml/lr solution.

v. Anthracnose:

In the early stages small, round, black spots appears on the affected fruit. At this point, these spots will increases the size and turns to brown color.

The skin of the natural product darkens, turns pale and is covered with a characteristic pink acerbilin coating. Ultimately, the entire finger is affected. In the future, the disease will spread and affect the entire group.

This disease causes premature ripening as well as wrinkling of fruits which have been covered in pink spore masses. If  black spots appear on the stem, then the stem will wither and your fingers will fall off your hand. Sometimes the main stem of a bunch may get sick then the infected fruits turns to black color and rot.

The spread of that disease is carried out by airborne conidia, as well as numerous insects that stay at banana flowers at frequent times.

The disease is promoted by the susceptibility to high temperatures and humidity,  cuts and bruises of fruit varieties.

This disease gets appeared whenever the deficiency of the minerals get reduced.

vi. Moko disease:

The Moko Disease is also known as Bacterial Wilt.

This Disease Symptoms are as follows - The leaves gets turned into yellow and move up. The petiole is broken and the leaves droop. At the time of incision, there is a discoloration ranging from light yellow to dark brown in the blood vessel area. The discolouration will be appeared in the central part of the corm. The inside of the fruit rots and turns dark brown.

Whenever the pseudostem has been cut transversely then the bacterial ooze can be seen clearly.

These organisms can live in the plant material, in the vegetative reproductive organs, in wild hosts, and in the soil.

The best atmosphere for this disease are high temperatures and high humidity.

vii. Tip Over:

Tip Over is also known as bacterial soft rot. This disease is reportedly killing young people, resulting in rot and an unpleasant odour.

If the affected plant is stripped, it will leave the throat and then leave the light in the soil.

In the initial stage of the disease, the dark brown (or)  the yellow water often appears on the skin. When the affected plant is cut, yellow or red mud appears on the neck. Plant pathogens can survive on plant debris and spread by irrigating damaged tissue. It is worse in hot, humid conditions, where the disease can spread in polluted water. Temperature and humidity are ideal for bacteria.

viii. Banana bract mosaic virus (BBMV):

Symptoms of this disease are as follows: - The disease appears from red to the red spindle group in pseudostem, in the midrib and in the pedicel.

Typical mosaic and spindle-like light mosaic stripes on the bracts, stems and on the fingers were also detected. Suckers display an unusual reddish-brown stripe as they emerge and detach the leaf sheath from the central axis. Characteristic symptoms are travel palms, elongated flower stalks, and crown leaf accumulation with the appearance of a half-double hand. The Survival and the spread of this disease are as follows -  This illness is caused by a infection that has a place to the potyvirus bunch. Virions are flexible and fibrous. This disease is transmitted by aphid vectors such as Pentolonia nigronervosa, Pentolonia nigronervosa, Aphis gosypii and Rhopalosiphum Maidis. This illness is transmitted by people running outside.

ix. Banana streak disease (BSV):

Disease The symptoms of the disease are as follows - One of the main symptoms of BSV is yellow streaks that gradually die off on leaves and black streaks on older leaves.

The Survival and the spead of this disease are as follows - The virus is primarily transmitted through infected plant material, but is also believed to be transmitted by the mealybug (Planococcus citri) and, more likely, Saccharicoccus sacchari.

In shoot tip culture, shoot tips cannot be removed from the vegetatively propagated material.

x. Infectious chlorosis (CMV):

The Symptoms of this disease are as follows - In all the stages of the growth of crop, this disease shows itself.

Revaccination of infected plants spreads the virus, resulting in reduced yield and quality.

This type of diseases may occur in all the states of banana growth. There are pale yellow stripes parallel to the veins, and the stripes are visible on the leaves.

The streaks will usually runs between mid rib and edge of that blade. The type of disease was distributed by suckers and Aphis gossypi.

Source: https://vikaspedia.in/agriculture/crop-production/integrated-pest-managment/ipm-for-fruit-crops/ipm-strategies-for-banana/diseases-and-symptoms

Ripening of banana:

Ripening is one of the most important phase in agriculture. Ripening of fruits are categorized into two types either climacteric or non-climacteric. Non-climacteric fruits do not ripen off the tree after harvesting whereas climacteric fruits ripen even after harvesting. Banana belongs to climacteric fruit. Generally, bananas are green in colour and slowly turns into yellow after ripening. Bananas are ripened in chambers with controlled temperature of around 15-18 degrees, humidity, and ethylene gas at 100-150 ppm concentration with exposure time of 24 to 48 hours. The peel colour of banana transforms from green to yellow colour. When the banana peels is converted from green to yellow then the starch is converted into sugars and pulp gets soft. Bananas are well cleaned, pre-cooled and well processed at full yellow colour and exported into the market [11].

Improper temperature and insufficient amount of ethylene gas leads into problems like chilling injury & unripen bananas. It can be well noticed by observing its peel colour. Colour of banana peel is an important key to maintain the level of temperature and ethylene in ripening process. An expert operator’s attention is required in this entire banana ripening process to get successful results [12].

There are also some automated process for this ripening which sorts, controls and adjusts the temperature, humidity & concentration of ethylene gas by observing the colour changes of the banana peel. Electrical methods, Spectral methods & Image processing Methods are some of the processes used to detect the level of ripeness of the fruits in this ripening process. These methods prevent and warns us if any abnormal activity occur in the process [13].

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Figure 9. Stages of ripening of banana fruit

The above Figure 9 represents the stages of ripening of banana fruit of a banana tree.

Reference: Irzal Ahmad Sabilla, Cahyaningtyas Sekar Wahyuni, Chastine Fatichah and Darlis Herumurti, "Determining Banana Types and Ripeness from Image using Machine Learning Methods", 2019.

Type of earthworm in the banana tree:

Earthworms dwells in the soil and undergrounds of the earth. Generally, people use them as bait for fishing, making medicine and in agriculture. Earthworms are found in the soil around banana trees or crops, because the soil around the banana trees have plenty of moisture and with low temperature which is preferred by earthworms. Presence of earthworms benefits a lot for the banana tree habitat. Earthworms have both environmental chemical and physical requirements with optimum humidity, high organic matter etc..., [14].

The physical and chemical factors of life of earthworms are pH, moisture, temperature, soil type & structure, humidity, organic matter, porosity of the soil and limiting factors are elements of carbon and nitrogen. Existence of earthworms makes the soil more fertile and increases its porosity which helps in flowing of air into the soil and also helps water to penetrate deep into the soil and helps the tree roots to get required amount of water. Earthworms plays an important role in soil ecology as they provide plenty of organic matter through their stool and also increase the porosity of the soil [15].

Micro nutrients are essential nutrients that plants requires in small quantities for various biochemical & physiological processes necessary for healthy crop growth [16]. Soil is an important source of micro nutrients for plants. Deficiencies of micro nutrients may leads to poor growth or diseases of plants. Proper micronutrient management is essential for optimizing crop yeilds and overall agricultural productivity. Nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P) and potassium (K) are the three main nutrients, together the trio is known as NPK.

Nitrogen

It is an essential nutrient for plant growth. It is found in all plant cells, proteins, hormones, chlorophyll, etc. The source of soil nitrogen is atmospheric nitrogen. Soil with a lot of organic matter usually has more nitrogen. When there is enough nitrogen, photosynthesis occurs at a high rate.

Deficiency symptoms:-

1. Stunted growth
2. Lower protein content
3. Flowering is greatly reduced
4. Leaves turning into light green to pale-yellow colour from tips followed by shedding/death based on degree of deficiency
5. Leaching
6. Consumption by plants and other organisms

Phosphorus

It helps in transferring the sunlight energy to all parts of the plants and helps in plant growth & stimulating early root growth. All manure contains phosphorus, and its rich in source in manure from grain-fed animals. Generally concentration of phosphorus in plants ranges from 0.1% to 0.5%.

Deficiency Symptoms:

1. Overall stunned appearance
2. Root development restriction
3. Poor fruit & seed development
4. Delaying of maturity
5. Matured leaves have dark to blue-green colour characteristics.

Potassium

Potassium helps by improving disease resistance of plans, helps in moving and formation of sugars, starches and oils and also improves the quality of fruits.  It involves in many enzymatic reactions, involves in helping during transpiration.

Deficiency Symptoms:-

1. Slow and stunted growth
2. Shrivelled seeds of fruits
3. Stalks weaken and plant lodge easily

Some common deficiency symptoms are:-

Fall of pre-matured buds & leaves – deficiency of K&P.

Retarded plant growth – deficiency of N, P, K. For banana plant, pH value should be around 5.5-6.5, N:k ratio should be 1:1 or 1:1.6 depending on method and yields.

Table 1. Guide to preffered levels for bananas  from a typical soil test

The above Table 1 identifies the preferred levels for bananas from a typical soil test that describes about with respect to microlevels.

The order of nutrient uptake and removal uptake of macronutrients is (K) Potassium> (N) Nitrogen (Ca) Calcium > (Mg) Magnesium>(P) Phosphorus.

Young banana plants needs around 0.25 to 0.5 pounds of fertilizers per month. We recommend using a balanced 8-10-8 (NPK) fertilizer. In general, bananas need an average of 4 to 6 inches of water per month, or about 1 to 1.5 inches per week, depending on the season. Make sure the soil drains well and does not have standing water, as overwatering causes root rot.

Soil sample collection process:

Selecting sampling spot

-> remove surface litter

-> make a 'V' shaped cut to a depth of 15 cm

-> remove thick slices of soil from top to bottom of exposed face and place in a clean container

-> mix samples thoroughly

-> label the information (i.e location of farm, date of collection etc..,) on the container

-> send soil samples for testing.

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Figure 11. Image-1

The above Figure 11 represents the image uploader of a Banana disease predictor tool which is used to predict the banana plant disease and to predict the accuracy of banana plant.

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Figure 12. Image-2

The above Figure 12 shows the type of disease and it’s accuracy of a Banana plant which was uploaded in the Figure 11.

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Figure 13. Image-3

The above Figure 13 shows the other type of disease and it’s accuracy of banana plant.

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Figure 14. Image-4

The above Figure 14 shows the other type of disease and it’s accuracy of a banana plant.

This prototype has been designed using Flask web framework, SVM model, Image Preprocessing, Prediction and Static file serving. Flask web framework is used to create a web application. A pre-trained SVM model is loaded from the 'svm_model.pkl' file. This model is used for image classification. Images uploaded by users are preprocessed before making predictions. The uploaded image is resized to match the training data size (224x224 pixels). The preprocessed image is fed into the SVM model for prediction. Decision values are obtained from the model. The class with the highest decision value is selected as the predicted disease. A prediction percentage is calculated based on the decision value. The application serves static files like 'index.html' file and uploaded images.

Code:

from flask import Flask, request, render_template, send_from_directory, url_for

import cv2

import numpy as np

import joblib

import os

app = Flask(__name__)

model = joblib.load('svm_model.pkl')

def preprocess_image(image_path):

    img = cv2.imread(image_path)

    if img is None:

        raise Exception("Invalid image file")

    img = cv2.resize(img, (224, 224))  #

    img = img / 255.0 

    return img

@app.route('/', methods=['GET', 'POST'])

def index():

    disease_name = None

    prediction_percentage = None

    uploaded_image = None

    error = None

    image_uploaded = False

    if request.method == 'POST':

        if 'file' not in request.files:

            error = 'No file part'

        else:

            file = request.files['file']

            if file.filename == '':

                error = 'No selected file'

            else:

                try:

                    uploaded_file_path = 'uploads/temp.jpg'

                    file.save(uploaded_file_path)

                    image_uploaded = True

                    img = preprocess_image(uploaded_file_path)

                    img = img.reshape(1, -1)

                    decision_values = model.decision_function(img)

                    disease_name = model.classes_[decision_values.argmax()]

                    prediction_percentage = (1 / (1 + np.exp(-decision_values.max()))) * 100

                    uploaded_image = url_for('uploaded_file', filename='temp.jpg')

                except Exception as e:

                    error = str(e)

    return render_template('index.html', disease_name=disease_name, prediction_percentage=prediction_percentage, uploaded_image=uploaded_image, error=error, image_uploaded=image_uploaded)

#BackEnd Serving

@app.route('/index.html')

def serve_index():

    return send_from_directory(os.getcwd(), 'index.html')

@app.route('/uploads/<filename>')

def uploaded_file(filename):

    return send_from_directory('uploads', filename)

if __name__ == '__main__':

    app.run(debug=True, port=8080)