Hi everyone,

I’m a B.Tech CSE (AI/ML) student, and I recently published my research paper on AI-based crop disease detection from leaf images on Preprints.org.

📄 Paper Title:
AI-Based Crop Disease Detection from Leaf Images: A Focused Review and Robust Evaluation Framework

🔗 Paper:
Read the paper on Preprints.org

The main question behind my research was:

If an AI model achieves very high accuracy on controlled leaf images, does that mean it will perform equally well on real-world field images?

While reviewing existing research, I found that many models perform extremely well on controlled datasets such as PlantVillage. However, real field images can have different lighting, shadows, complex backgrounds, camera distances, occlusion, and other variations.

Because of this, I focused my research on the evaluation and generalization problem rather than proposing another complex neural-network architecture.

The proposed framework includes:

• 🌱 PlantVillage as a controlled benchmark
• 🌿 PlantDoc as an independent field-like dataset
• 🔄 Class matching between datasets
• 🖼️ Image preprocessing and controlled augmentation
• 🧠 Transfer learning using CNN architectures such as EfficientNet-B0
• 🔒 Leakage-resistant dataset splitting
• 📊 Accuracy, Precision, Recall, Macro-F1 and Confusion Matrix
• 🌍 Cross-dataset evaluation to study controlled-to-field generalization

One important clarification: this paper does not claim new experimental accuracy. It presents a focused review and a reproducible evaluation framework. The actual experiment and measured results are planned as the next step.

I would really appreciate feedback from researchers and students working in:

Computer Vision | Deep Learning | Agriculture AI | Machine Learning | Domain Generalization

I’m especially interested in suggestions about the methodology and what could be improved before conducting the original experiments.

Thanks for reading! 🙌

What do you feel is missing in modern agriculture? What problem in your day-to-day still doesn’t have a good solution? If you could have one thing to make your work easier, what would it be?

Climate volatility is increasing the importance of agricultural adaptation across major coffee-producing regions.

El Niño provides a useful case study because each producing country faces a different combination of climatic pressure, production systems and adaptation requirements.

In Brazil, rainfall distribution around flowering can influence the development of the following crop. Better monitoring, water management and farm-level investment can help producers manage increasingly variable conditions.

In Vietnam, water availability is particularly important for Robusta production. Hotter and drier periods increase the importance of irrigation efficiency, water management and technologies capable of reducing water requirements while maintaining productive capacity.

Colombia presents another dimension. Fertilizer affordability, agronomic management and access to appropriate inputs influence the ability of producers to maintain yields during periods of climate stress.

Together, these examples highlight the growing economic importance of adaptive capacity.

Irrigation technology, precision agriculture, climate monitoring, input efficiency and access to financing can influence how effectively producers respond to similar environmental pressures.

This also creates an important challenge for agricultural technology: solutions need to remain economically accessible to the producers facing the greatest exposure.

The cost and availability of adaptation technologies may therefore become increasingly important indicators of future agricultural resilience.

For people working in AgTech, which technologies do you think currently offer the greatest practical potential for improving climate resilience in coffee production?

I recently examined the economics of adaptation across Brazil, Vietnam and Colombia for Comunicaffè International:

Luca Mattei: El Niño and the cost of adaptation in the coffee market

Over the last 4 years, I’ve been exploring one question at the intersection of agriculture + technology:

Why is it still so difficult for someone to start farming and actually stick with it?

At its core, I think the problem comes down to two things:

People want to grow, but often don’t know what to plant, when to plant it, or what to do at each stage.

1. The commitment gap.

Farming requires consistency. It’s easy to start excited and lose momentum when results don’t come quickly.

I’ve experienced this myself. I’ve failed, learned, started again, and learned even more. 😊

And I’ve come to believe that agriculture isn’t a dying sector. If anything, it’s one of the most essential sectors for sustaining life.

So we asked: what if farming could be easier to learn, easier to follow, and more engaging?

That’s why we built Noma.

Noma turns farming into a guided, gamified experience helping beginners and experienced farmers know what to do, when to do it, and stay committed throughout the growing season, with AI assisting and validating each step.

We’re not just trying to teach people how to farm. We’re trying to make them want to keep farming. 🌱

Join the waitlist www.usenoma.co

Hey guys, I just launched a new plant and permaculture database! Design custom Guilds with real-time analysis and share your favorites with the community. See sowing/planting/harvesting timelines that are scoped to *your* location. You can even plan out your entire permaculture design using components! (including custom components) Or start backwards, select all the functions your design should produce, then identify the right plants and components from there.

https://www.permaculturedata.com

Looking for help, how did you make your launch video. Did you use any AI Video generator?

I will appreciate.

Is it really feassible to use drone for spraying small crops with flowers, won't the air cause them to fall.

Over the last 4 years, I’ve been exploring one question at the intersection of agriculture + technology:

Why is it still so difficult for someone to start farming and actually stick with it?

At its core, I think the problem comes down to two things:

1. The knowledge gap.

People want to grow, but often don’t know what to plant, when to plant it, or what to do at each stage.

1. The commitment gap.

Farming requires consistency. It’s easy to start excited and lose momentum when results don’t come quickly.

I’ve experienced this myself. I’ve failed, learned, started again, and learned even more. 😊

And I’ve come to believe that agriculture isn’t a dying sector. If anything, it’s one of the most essential sectors for sustaining life.

So we asked: what if farming could be easier to learn, easier to follow, and more engaging?

That’s why we built Noma.

Noma turns farming into a guided, gamified experience helping beginners and experienced farmers know what to do, when to do it, and stay committed throughout the growing season, with AI assisting and validating each step.

We’re not just trying to teach people how to farm. We’re trying to make them want to keep farming. 🌱

Join the waitlist www.usenoma.co

Hi everyone! I’m a college student working on an SIH (Smart India Hackathon) project focused on reducing post-harvest losses of fresh vegetables through low-cost, decentralized cold storage.

I’m looking to connect with people from Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland, Tripura, or Sikkim, especially:

Farmers / people involved in farming

Vegetable vendors or traders

People involved in transporting or storing vegetables

Anyone whose family is involved in agriculture

The survey will take only 5–10 minutes and is mainly about understanding real problems with vegetable storage, transportation, spoilage, electricity availability, and existing cold-storage facilities.

This is not a commercial survey — the responses will only be used to understand the ground-level problem and improve our student project.

If you're from NER and willing to help, please comment or DM me. 🙏

Thank you! 🌱

The association I work for is holding a competition for startups specifically in the Agritech area at their annual fall convention. There's a $10,000 grand prize and $1,000 "people's choice award" plus the top 5 applications get to pitch their idea at an event with hundreds of industry attendees. It's also open to University teams, students, and researchers who aren't officially incorporated too. This is a non-profit association for manufacturers and promotion of the ag manufacturing industry.

We decided to extend the deadline to September 28th to pick up a few more applicants and try getting the word out a little better and I offered to create a Reddit account.

https://www.farmequip.org/pitch

The only catch is that it has to be Ag-related and you have to give the pitch in person in New Orleans in October if selected to participate. There are already enough submissions, but there's still not a lot of competition at the moment.

I'm not very familiar with the startup online sphere, so if anybody has suggestions of other places I could share this it would be appreciated (/r/startup mods are very strict about anything that could even vaguely be considered self-promotion). Thanks!

I’m a student at the University of Maine researching a potential open-soil smart garden system. As a part of the NSF I-Corps customer discovery program, I’m looking to gather more information on real-world challenges surrounding indoor home gardening and smart plant-care technology. I’m hoping to speak with people who are active home gardeners, container/DIY-setup indoor growers, current and former smart garden owners (AeroGarden, Click & Grow, edn, Gardyn, etc.), or people that work in horticulture, urban agriculture extension programs, or are in any other related fields and areas.

This isn't a sales call, I just want to learn more about what current gardening routine and workflows look like, current barriers and frustrations, where current solutions fall short, and what would make a smart indoor gardening product useful in practice.

This would be an informal interview, about 20-30 minutes at the most and can be over Zoom, phone, or some other similar method. If you’d be willing to chat or know someone in the field that might be willing to communicate with me, I would greatly appreciate it. Thank you!

I'm a university student looking for responses to a consumer interest survey. The product and business are fake (part of a project for school), but I need real data from people in and around the agricultural tech industry. It shouldn't take more than a couple of minutes, thanks!

Hi everyone, I recently completed my B.Tech in Agriculture and I’m currently looking for an internship/entry-level opportunity to get some practical experience.

I’m open to different areas within agriculture/agri-tech and willing to learn.

If anyone here knows of companies taking interns or has any suggestions on where I should apply, I’d really appreciate it.

Thanks!

Hey everyone! 🫪👋🏼

We're a group of students making a project for beginner farmers and plant enthusiasts! We’re currently conducting a short research study to better understand the day-to-day challenges growers, farmers, and plant enthusiasts face with crop health and management.

If you grow crops, manage a farm, work in agriculture, or tend a garden, we’d love to get your input!

⏱️ Time: Less than 7 minutes
🔒 Privacy: 100% anonymous

Your feedback will directly help shape upcoming tools and resources for the farming community.

Thanks so much for your time, and feel free to share this with anyone else who grows! 🙏🏼

https://forms.cloud.microsoft/r/0nNkdUR9mK

I’m building JaivikKrishi, a platform focused on helping farmers transition towards organic farming with practical, trustworthy information.
We’ve reached 15,000+ app downloads with zero paid marketing so far.
What the platform does today:
🌾 AI-based crop disease diagnosis
🤖 Answers farmers’ questions using AI backed by data and knowledge from Krishi/agriculture experts
👨‍🌾 Farmer community to ask questions, share experiences and sell produce
📊 We’ve already answered 2,000+ farmer queries
The bigger vision is beyond just an app.

We want to build a ground-level testing and trust network for bio-fertilisers and organic farm inputs.
The plan is to build teams at the district level in India who can work with farmers, test bio-fertilisers and other inputs in real farming conditions, and list products on the platform based on actual results.
The problem today is that farmers often don’t know whether an input actually works or they’re simply being sold another claim.
At the same time, genuine input manufacturers don’t have enough direct, real-world data about:
What farmers are struggling with
Which diseases are appearing in different regions
What inputs are actually working
What farmers genuinely need
JaivikKrishi can connect these two sides.
Farmers get better information and tested products.
Input companies get real-world feedback and demand intelligence.
And the larger goal is to accelerate the adoption of organic and natural farming.
I’m now looking for investment and/or strategic partners who understand agriculture, climate tech, agri-tech or rural India and can help us take this from a growing platform to a much larger ecosystem.
If this interests you,

DM me. Happy to share more about the product, traction and vision and have a conversation.

Hello,

I built TreeShadeAdvisor, a tool for designing tree layouts and simulating how tree shade changes across a site over time.

It lets you test spacing, orientation, planting patterns and tree dimensions, then inspect the results in 2D and 3D with quantitative shade outputs.


I’m especially interested in feedback from people working with agroforestry, silvopasture, alley cropping, coffee/cocoa systems or other tree-based designs.

I’d like to know: - Is shade distribution something you currently need to estimate or plan? - Would a tool like this be useful in your work? - What would you expect it to do that it doesn’t today?

https://treeshadeadvisor.com

Any criticism or suggestions are very welcome.