Enhancing Plant Disease Detection Using Attention-Augmented Residual Networks and Faster Region–Convolutional Networks

Rapid and accurate detection of plant diseases is crucial for agricultural productivity and food security. Traditional methods are labor-intensive and often unreliable. To overcome these limitations, this research introduces an innovative approach that integrates attention mechanisms into residual networks (ResNets) and utilizes Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs) for data augmentation. The method incorporates Attention-Augmented Residual Networks (AARN), which enhance feature extraction and classification by focusing on critical image regions. A Conditional GAN (cGAN) generates synthetic images of diseased and healthy plants, increasing dataset diversity. By combining AARN with Faster Region-Convolutional Neural Network (Faster-RCNN), detection capabilities are further enhanced. Training the AARN model on this augmented dataset improves generalization, achieving an impressive 98.78% accuracy in plant disease classification. The attention-augmented residuals boost the Faster-RCNN’s effectiveness by 23.84%, improving feature relevance and reducing overfitting. Comparative analysis shows that this method outperforms existing techniques in accuracy, precision, recall, and F1-score, offering a robust solution for plant disease detection. This integration of advanced deep learning techniques significantly improves automated plant disease identification, benefiting agricultural management practices.