Local Chapter Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania Chapter
Coordinated byTanzania ,
Status: Completed
Project Duration: 23 Apr 2023 - 24 Jun 2023
Open Source resources available from this project
Project background.
Agriculture plays a vital role in Tanzania’s economy, with over 75% of the population depending on it for their livelihoods. Crop diseases pose a significant threat to food security in Tanzania, with losses estimated at 30-50% for maize, and 20-40% for tomatoes. Maize is the most widely grown crop in Tanzania and is a staple food for the majority of the population, it is grown in nearly all agro-ecological zones in the country, while both maize and tomato are also high-value cash crops, with increasing demand in both local and international markets.
However, crop diseases affecting maize and tomato pose a significant threat to food security in Tanzania, and traditional methods of disease detection and management are often ineffective, leading to reduced crop yields and income for farmers. Crop diseases affecting maize and tomato are a significant threat to production, and have severe economic consequences, leading to reduced yields, lower income for farmers, and increased food insecurity.
The problem.
The traditional methods of disease detection and management rely on visual inspection by farmers can be time-consuming and prone to errors. Early detection of diseases is critical to prevent their spread and minimize crop losses. There is a need for an efficient and accurate system for the detection of crop diseases in maize in Tanzania.
To address this, a machine learning-based system for the detection of crop diseases will be developed, which will provide accurate and reliable diagnoses of crop diseases, enabling farmers to take timely action.
The project team will develop a machine learning-based system to accurately detect crop diseases in maize and tomato crops, using image analysis techniques. The system will be designed to improve crop yields, enhance food security and livelihoods of farmers.
The machine learning techniques that will be employed in this project are Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs). CNNs have proven to be highly effective in image recognition and classification tasks, and have been successfully applied in various fields, including agriculture. The trained CNN model will be able to learn and distinguish between different types of crop diseases based on visual symptoms and other parameters. The CNN model will be trained on a dataset of images of healthy and diseased maize and tomato crops, using transfer learning techniques. Transfer learning involves using pre-trained models as a starting point for training, to leverage the learned features and weights from the dataset.
The CNN model will be implemented using the TensorFlow framework, which provides an efficient and flexible platform for building and training machine learning models. The model will be trained using a combination of supervised and unsupervised learning techniques, with the latter being used to identify novel and emerging crop diseases.
Overall, this project will contribute to the development of an innovative solution for the detection and management of crop diseases in Tanzania, with the potential to improve crop yields and livelihoods for farmers.
Project goals.
Project plan.
Week 1
Data Collection
Week 2
Data Pre-processing
Week 3
Exploratory Data Analysis
Week 4
Model Selection
Week 5
Model Training
Week 6
Model Evaluation
Week 7
Model Fine-tuning
Week 8
Final Solution Alignment
Learning outcomes.
1. Understanding of Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) and their applications in image classification tasks, with a focus on crop disease detection.
2. Knowledge and skills in image pre-processing techniques, such as image normalization, resizing, and augmentation, which are critical for preparing image data for machine learning models.
3. Proficiency in transfer learning techniques, which involve using pre-trained models as a starting point for training new models.
4. Familiarity with the TensorFlow framework for building and training machine learning models.
5. Understanding of data labeling and annotation techniques, which are essential for creating accurate and comprehensive datasets for training machine learning models.
6. Knowledge of crop diseases affecting maize and tomato crops in Tanzania, including their symptoms, causes, and management strategies.
7. Awareness of the challenges facing farmers in Tanzania with regard to crop diseases and food security.
8. Understanding of the potential of machine learning-based systems in addressing agricultural challenges and improving food security.
9. Experience in designing and implementing user-friendly interfaces for farmers to upload images and receive disease diagnosis and management recommendations.
10. Ability to evaluate the performance of machine learning models in terms of accuracy, speed, and usability, and to optimize model performance through hyperparameter tuning and other techniques.
