Detection of kochia [Bassia scoparia (L.) A.J. Scott] and waterhemp [Amaranthus tuberculatus (Moq.) J.D. Sauer] in sugarbeet field using hyperspectral imaging and deep learning technologies.

Journal: Pest management science
Published Date:

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Kochia [Bassia scoparia (L.) A.J. Scott] and waterhemp [Amaranthus tuberculatus (Moq.) J.D. Sauer] are among the most aggressive and competitive weed species in sugarbeet production. Their similarity to the crop during early growth stages poses a significant challenge for early identification using conventional imaging techniques. This study aimed to develop and evaluate a hyperspectral imaging based deep learning model capable of distinguishing kochia and waterhemp from sugarbeet under field conditions. Hyperspectral images were acquired and preprocessed to extract spectral and spatial information for classification. RESULTS: The attention enhanced convolutional neural network (AE-CNN), trained using the combined spectral and spatial features, achieved the highest performance with a classification accuracy of 99.99%, and precision, recall, and F1-score values of 1.0. In comparison, the support vector machine (SVM), trained using only spectral features achieved a classification accuracy of 96.98%, with precision, recall, and F1-score values of 0.97. CONCLUSION: These results highlight the potential of ground-based hyperspectral imaging to accurately distinguish invasive weed species from crops, supporting site-specific weed management in agriculture. The findings contribute valuable insights into the utilization of plants spectral signatures for early-stage weed identification and support the development of timely and targeted weed control strategies. © 2025 Society of Chemical Industry.

Authors

  • Bright Mensah
    Department of Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering, North Dakota State University, Fargo, North Dakota, USA.
  • Kelvin Betitame
    Department of Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering, North Dakota State University, Fargo, North Dakota, USA.
  • Joseph Mettler
    Department of Plant Sciences, North Dakota State University, Fargo, ND 58102, USA.
  • Kirk Howatt
    Department of Plant Sciences, North Dakota State University, Fargo, ND 58102, USA.
  • William Aderholdt
    Grand Farm Innovation Campus, 3729 153rd Ave SE, Wheatland, ND 58079, USA.
  • Mohamed Khan
    NDSU Extension, North Dakota State University, Fargo, North Dakota, USA.
  • Thomas Peters
    Department of Plant Sciences, North Dakota State University, Fargo, North Dakota, USA.
  • Xin Sun
    Department of Biostatistics, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA USA.

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