A Computer-Vision-Based Approach for Nitrogen Content Estimation in Plant Leaves

Tazeem Haider, Muhammad Shahid Farid, Rashid Mahmood, Areeba Ilyas, Muhammad Hassan Khan, Sakeena Tul-Ain Haider, Muhammad Hamid Chaudhry and Mehreen Gul
Additional contact information
Tazeem Haider: Department of Computer Science, University of the Punjab, Lahore 58590, Pakistan
Muhammad Shahid Farid: Department of Computer Science, University of the Punjab, Lahore 58590, Pakistan
Rashid Mahmood: Department of Soil Science, University of the Punjab, Lahore 58590, Pakistan
Areeba Ilyas: Department of Computer Science, University of the Punjab, Lahore 58590, Pakistan
Muhammad Hassan Khan: Department of Computer Science, University of the Punjab, Lahore 58590, Pakistan
Sakeena Tul-Ain Haider: Department of Horticulture, Bahauddin Zakariya University, Multan 60800, Pakistan
Muhammad Hamid Chaudhry: Centre for Geographic Information System, University of the Punjab, Lahore 58590, Pakistan
Mehreen Gul: Department of Soil Sciences, Bahauddin Zakariya University, Multan 60800, Pakistan

Agriculture, 2021, vol. 11, issue 8, 1-19

Abstract: Nitrogen is an essential nutrient element required for optimum crop growth and yield. If a specific amount of nitrogen is not applied to crops, their yield is affected. Estimation of nitrogen level in crops is momentous to decide the nitrogen fertilization in crops. The amount of nitrogen in crops is measured through different techniques, including visual inspection of leaf color and texture and by laboratory analysis of plant leaves. Laboratory analysis-based techniques are more accurate than visual inspection, but they are costly, time-consuming, and require skilled laboratorian and precise equipment. Therefore, computer-based systems are required to estimate the amount of nitrogen in field crops. In this paper, a computer vision-based solution is introduced to solve this problem as well as to help farmers by providing an easier, cheaper, and faster approach for measuring nitrogen deficiency in crops. The system takes an image of the crop leaf as input and estimates the amount of nitrogen in it. The image is captured by placing the leaf on a specially designed slate that contains the reference green and yellow colors for that crop. The proposed algorithm automatically extracts the leaf from the image and computes its color similarity with the reference colors. In particular, we define a green color value (GCV) index from this analysis, which serves as a nitrogen indicator. We also present an evaluation of different color distance models to find a model able to accurately capture the color differences. The performance of the proposed system is evaluated on a Spinacia oleracea dataset. The results of the proposed system and laboratory analysis are highly correlated, which shows the effectiveness of the proposed system.

Keywords: nitrogen estimation; image processing; leaf contents; crop yield; color distance models (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q1 Q10 Q11 Q12 Q13 Q14 Q15 Q16 Q17 Q18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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