Study of Turmeric Plant Diseases and Methods of Disease Identification using Digital Image Processing Techniques

Abstract

The vast economic potentiality of the crop can be adequately established by the fact that about 20-30 million people consume turmeric in India on a regular basis besides those in other countries of the world which may include over 2 billion consumers. Its cultivation is highly labor intensive and offers employment to about 2.0 million families engaged in cultivation, trading and commerce in turmeric throughout India. Turmeric powder is used as medicine for certain diseases and also used as an antiseptic. During cultivation turmeric is very much affected by disease and also procedure for to identify diseases early infected stage using digital image processing and pattern recognition techniques, such as rhizome rot disease, leaf spot disease, leaf blotch disease and dry rot disease that result in great loss for the farmers. It occurs in a very virulent form and if not controlled, causes widespread damage and even total destruction of the entire turmeric plantations without any early indications of the diseases. The aim of this paper is to study and identify various diseases in the turmeric plants and also procedure for to identify diseases early infected stage using digital image processing and pattern recognition techniques.