Leveraging Deep Learning for Effective Pest Management in Plantain Tree Cultivation

Plantain trees are one of the most important crops in terms of economic, cultural, and nutritional value. Plantain trees are one among the widespread agricultural crops in India. Most of the fruits are seasonal, but banana grows all-round the year regardless seasons. This provides a consistent employment and income for many people in India. India is the largest banana producing country in the world. In India, Tamil Nadu is the leading banana producing state which accounts for a third of the country’s total banana production. The first part of this investigative study focuses on the most common pests found in the plantain trees of Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh. Early identification of pests helps to give better control and manage them. Timely identification of diseases and pests is important for controlling their impact on the health of plantain trees. For this, various artificial intelligence techniques such as machine learning and deep learning can be utilized. The second part of this study focuses on the role of deep learning techniques in detecting various pests in plantain trees and proposing a deep learning architecture for the same.