# Digital decision support integrated with diagnostics and precision fungicide application for Southern Corn Leaf Blight in maize

## TL;DR

This paper introduces an AI-powered system for detecting and managing Southern Corn Leaf Blight in maize, combining deep learning, precision fungicide application, and a digital decision support tool.

## Contribution

The novel contribution is an integrated AI framework for real-time disease detection and precision fungicide application in maize.

## Key findings

- VGG16 achieved high diagnostic accuracy (97.0%) for SCLB detection.
- Precision fungicide application reduced disease severity by 86.2% and increased grain yield to 83.7 q/ha.
- The digital decision support system offers scalable, real-time advisories for maize disease management.

## Abstract

Southern Corn Leaf Blight (SCLB, also called Maize Leaf Blight, MLB), caused by Bipolaris maydis (teleomorph: Cochliobolus heterostrophus), severely limits maize yield under favourable conditions. Rapid detection and precise interventions are essential for sustainable production. We present an AI-driven framework integrating deep learning diagnostics, precision fungicide application, and a digital decision support system (DSS) for field-level SCLB management. Thirteen machine learning (ML) and deep learning (DL) algorithms were evaluated, with VGG16 achieving the highest performance (accuracy 97.0%, precision 0.98, recall 0.96, F1-score ≥ 0.97, AUC-ROC = 1.00). Feature extraction analysis highlighted VGG16’s ability to capture hierarchical disease-specific patterns (score = 0.95), and error- and variance-based assessment confirmed minimal prediction errors (MAE = 0.06, RMSE = 0.16, Explained Variance = 0.90, MBD = − 0.02). Confusion matrix analysis revealed only a small number of misclassifications (4 false negatives and 9 false positives), demonstrating excellent generalization. Grad-CAM heatmaps, t-SNE visualization, and learning curves confirmed lesion-focused predictions and feature separability. Two-year field trials (2023 and 2024) validated precision fungicide application (Azoxystrobin 18.2% + Difenoconazole 11.4% SC), reducing disease severity to ≈ 10% PDI (86.2% reduction) and increasing grain yield to 83.7 q/ha (C: B ratio 1:2.41). The Streamlit-based DSS provides actionable, real-time advisories, offering a scalable AI platform for automated disease detection and precision agriculture in maize. The proposed framework can be extended to other foliar diseases and integrated with IoT-based sensing for region-wide advisory systems.

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1038/s41598-026-38151-0.