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Crop diseases constitute a danger to worldwide food stability, diminishing harvest yield, grade, and total farming efficiency. Conventionally, the identification of plant ailments has depended on lengthy visual assessments by specialists, a method that frequently results in mistakes. Machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI), in particular Vision Transformers (ViTs) and Convolutional Neural Networks, deliver a swifter, automated substitute for recognizing plant illnesses through leaf image analysis. However, these frameworks are regularly faulted for their "black box" character, which curbs confidence in their outputs due to a lack of clarity. Our outcomes indicate that integrating Explainable AI (XAI) approaches like Grad-CAM, Integrated Gradients, and LIME notably boosts model explainability, rendering it simpler for users to detect the fundamental indicators of plant sicknesses. This investigation not only adds to the area of plant disease recognition but also supplies an original viewpoint on advancing AI openness in actual farming settings through the application of XAI methods. With training accuracy rates of 100.00% for ViT, 96.88% for EfficientNetB7, 93.75% for EfficientNetB0, and 87.50% for ResNet50, and equivalent validation accuracy rates of 96.39% for ViT, 86.98% for EfficientNetB7, and 82.00% for EfficientNetB0, our suggested architectures exceed earlier studies performed on the identical dataset. This illustrates a considerable leap in model capability while upholding clarity and dependability by way of explainable and trustworthy decision procedures.

Quantifying soil total nitrogen (TN) with high accuracy is vital for boosting crop vigor and quality. A major obstacle, however, is that soil diversity from one region to another undermines the transferability of calibration models. To confront this obstacle, this paper puts forward a framework called transfer-learning-assisted laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy for cross-regional soil analysis (TransLIBS-CRS), which is custom-built to counteract the weak cross-domain predictive capacity caused by differences in regional soil characteristics. By adapting the model with a small batch of samples from the target setting, the technique substantially elevates the cross-domain utility of LIBS measurements, easing the difficulties tied to procuring soil specimens from geographically dispersed locations. In tests where Beijing data were used to infer TN levels in Guangzhou, the TransLIBS-CRS model yielded the strongest outcomes, recording an R2V of 0.846 and an RMSEV of 0.814 g/kg. A closer look via saliency mapping and chemometric tools indicated that carbon emission wavelengths at 193.0 nm and 247.8 nm serve a decisive function in TN quantification. Crucially, these spectral markers kept their predictive power unchanged when carried over to the Guangzhou soil dataset. This tactic furnishes a workable route toward broad-scale, high-efficiency soil TN assessment.

The choice of methodologies is a pivotal factor in disease identification, particularly when computer vision intersects with agricultural innovation. Safeguarding global food supplies depends on the timely and accurate identification of crop diseases. Deep learning offers a feasible pathway to satisfy this demand. To move this research forward, we engineered and tested a disease identification framework grounded in a novel ensemble strategy. Our contribution includes the presentation of DenseNetMini, a more compact iteration of the DenseNet architecture. We advocate merging DenseNetMini with a learning resizer via an ensemble approach to improve training fidelity and accelerate knowledge acquisition. A further innovative element involves deploying Gradient Product (GP) as the optimization mechanism, efficiently reducing the training time while simultaneously improving model performance. Investigating imagery at varying magnifications reveals remarkable improvements in diagnostic consensus and precision. Accuracy figures on test data reach 99.65%, 98.96%, and 98.11% for the Plantvillage, Tomato leaf, and Appleleaf9 collections, respectively. A core triumph of this investigation is the substantial reduction in computational time, suggesting that GP adoption could make agricultural disease screening more accessible and operationally efficient. Beyond numerical gains, the work foregrounds Explainable Artificial Intelligence (XAI) approaches as indispensable for enhancing the interpretability and clarity of the disease detection framework. By visually pinpointing diagnostically relevant zones on foliage, XAI enhances the model’s comprehensibility, thereby nurturing user confidence and insight into how it arrives at its conclusions.