Combining biophysical parameters with thermal and RGB indices using machine learning models for predicting yield in yellow rust affected wheat crop

Abstract

Evaluating crop health and forecasting yields in the early stages are crucial for effective crop and market management during periods of biotic stress for both farmers and policymakers. Field experiments were conducted during 2017–18 and 2018–19 with objective to evaluate the effect of yellow rust on various biophysical parameters of 24 wheat cultivars, with varying levels of resistance to yellow rust and to develop machine learning (ML) models with improved accuracy for predicting yield by integrating thermal and RGB indices with crucial plant biophysical parameters. Results revealed that as the level of rust increased, so did the canopy temperature and there was a significant decrease in crop photosynthesis, transpiration, stomatal conductance, leaf area index, membrane stability index, relative leaf water content, and normalized difference vegetation index due to rust, and the reductions were directly correlated with levels of rust severity. The yield reduction in moderate resistant, low resistant and susceptible cultivars as compared to resistant cultivars, varied from 15.9–16.9%, 28.6–34.4% and 59–61.1%, respectively. The ML models were able to provide relatively accurate early yield estimates, with the accuracy increasing as the harvest approached. The yield prediction performance of the different ML models varied with the stage of the crop growth. Based on the validation output of different ML models, Cubist, PLS, and SpikeSlab models were found to be effective in predicting the wheat yield at an early stage (55-60 days after sowing) of crop growth. The KNN, Cubist, SLR, RF, SpikeSlab, XGB, GPR and PLS models were proved to be more useful in predicting the crop yield at the middle stage (70 days after sowing) of the crop, while RF, SpikeSlab, KNN, Cubist, ELNET, GPR, SLR, XGB and MARS models were found good to predict the crop yield at late stage (80 days after sowing). The study quantified the impact of different levels of rust severity on crop biophysical parameters and demonstrated the usefulness of remote sensing and biophysical parameters data integration using machine-learning models for early yield prediction under biotically stressed conditions.

Winter Durum Wheat Disease Severity Detection with Field Spectroscopy in Phenotyping Experiment at Leaf and Canopy Level

“…Spectroscopy enables a fast, affordable, and powerful approach for disease detection and severity estimation, both in controlled laboratory settings [14][15][16][17] and directly in the field wheat infected with rust and leaf spots experiences a significant decrease in crop photosynthesis, transpiration, stomatal conductance, leaf area index, changes in leaf moisture and pigment levels, and a reduction of dry matter accumulation [18][19][20]. These physiological and biochemical alterations, including reduced chlorophyll content and disrupted cell structure, lead to distinctive changes in the spectral reflectance of the infected leaves, making them detectable through spectroradiometry and remote sensing techniques [21][22][23].…”

Predicting wheat yield from 2001 to 2020 in Hebei Province at county and pixel levels based on synthesized time series images of Landsat and MODIS

“…This increases the uncertainty of yield prediction model. Compared to linear regression algorithm, machine learning (ML) can capture the nonlinear respond of crop to environment variables in yield prediction 31 – 33 . Deep learning (DL) model is the more advanced ML model that transform raw input data over stacked nonlinear layers to improve model performance 34 – 36 .…”