FitoView: A Decision Support Application Integrating Weather Forecasts and CNNs for Plant Disease Classification and Severity Assessment - Case Study on Cercospora Leaf Spot in Chili Pepper

Plant diseases represent major constraints on agricultural productivity, often resulting in significant yield losses. This study presents FitoView, a cloud-based mobile decision support system that integrates deep learning with real-time weather forecasting for sustainable plant disease management. Demonstrated through a case study on Cercospora leaf spot in chili pepper, the system employs custom YOLOv8 models for automated disease detection, classification, and pixel-level severity quantification, combined with meteorological data from the OpenMeteo API. The core innovation lies in an integrated decision matrix that considers three dimensions: AI-assessed disease severity, 48-hour climatic risk forecasts, and optimal spraying conditions, generating four contextualized management scenarios with tailored re-evaluation periods (3-10 days). OpenMeteo API validation across four cities in Sergipe demonstrated very strong correlations, with Pearson coefficients (r) of 0.90-0.97 for temperature, 0.81-0.95 for humidity, and 0.92-0.95 for solar radiation, corresponding to R² values of 0.65-0.94. The YOLOv8 object detection model achieved perfect precision (100%) and macro-averaged recall of 89% across all disease classes, with Cercospora leaf spot detection reaching perfect metrics (100% precision, recall, and F1-score). Field validation in Lagarto, Sergipe, confirmed the system’s practical use: it accurately detected Cercospora leaf spot, estimated severity, and, combined with climatic risk, generated recommendations for alternative treatment and short-term re-evaluation. The Progressive Web Application architecture, deployed on a Cloud Platform, ensures accessibility without installation requirements, while the modular design enables scalability to additional crops and diseases, representing a significant advancement toward democratizing AI-powered precision agriculture tools for smallholder farmers in Brazil.