Enhanced reptile search optimization with convolutional autoencoder for soil nutrient classification model

BACKGROUND: Soil nutrients play an important role in soil fertility and other environmental factors. Soil testing is an effective tool for evaluating soil nutrient levels and calculating the appropriate quantitative of soil nutrients based on fertility and crop requirements. Because traditional soil nutrient testing models are impractical for real-time applications, efficient soil nutrient and potential hydrogen (pH) prediction models are required to improve overall crop productivity. Soil testing is an effective method to evaluate the presence of nutrient status of soil and assists in determining appropriate nutrient quantity. METHODS: Various machine learning (ML) models proposed, predict the soil nutrients, soil type, and soil moisture. To assess the significant soil nutrient content, this study develops an enhanced reptile search optimization with convolutional autoencoder (ERSOCAE-SNC) model for classifying and predicting the fertility indices. The model majorly focuses on the soil test reports. For classification, CAE model is applied which accurately determines the nutrient levels such as phosphorus (P), available potassium (K), organic carbon (OC), boron (B) and soil pH level. Since the trial-and-error method for hyperparameter tuning of CAE model is a tedious and erroneous process, the ERSO algorithm has been utilized which in turn enhances the classification performance. Besides, the ERSO algorithm is derived by incorporating the chaotic concepts into the RSO algorithm. RESULTS: Finally, the influence of the ERSOCAE-SNC model is examined using a series of simulations. The ERSOCAE-SNC model reported best results over other approaches and produces an accuracy of 98.99% for soil nutrients and 99.12% for soil pH. The model developed for the ML decision systems will help the Tamil Nadu government to manage the problems in soil nutrient deficiency and improve the soil health and environmental quality. Also reduces the input expenditures of fertilizers and saves time of soil experts.