Plant Disease Identification Using Explainable 3D Deep Learning On Hyperspectral Images

Hyperspectral imaging is emerging as a promising approach for plant disease identification. The large and possibly redundant information contained in hyperspectral data cubes makes deep learning based identification of plant diseases a natural fit. Here, we deploy a novel 3D deep convolutional neural network (DCNN) that directly assimilates the hyperspectral data. Furthermore, we interrogate the learnt model to produce physiologically meaningful explanations. We focus on an economically important disease, charcoal rot, which is a soil borne fungal disease that affects the yield of soybean crops worldwide.