Nondestructive Identification of Wheat Seed Variety and Geographical Origin Using Near-Infrared Hyperspectral Imagery and Deep Learning

Seed purity assurance is an important aspect of maintaining the quality standards of wheat seeds. It relies significantly on quality parameters, like varietal classification and geographical origin identification. Hyperspectral imaging (HSI) has emerged as an advanced nondestructive technique to determine various quality parameters. In recent years, several studies have utilized HSI for varietal classification, although a limited number of varieties were considered. Additionally, no attention has been paid to determining the geographical origin of wheat seeds. To address these gaps, two separate experiments were performed for varietal classification and geographical origin identification. The seeds from 96 varieties grown across 5 different agricultural regions in India were collected. Hyperspectral images of wheat seeds were acquired in the wavelength ranging 900–1700 nm. The spectral reflectance values were obtained from the region of interest (ROI) corresponding to each seed. Subsequently, the deep learning models (convolutional neural networks [CNNs]) were established and compared with two conventional algorithms, including support vector machines (SVMs) and K-nearest neighbors (KNNs). The experimental results indicated that the proposed CNN models outperformed the SVM and KNN models, achieving an overall accuracy of 94.88% and 99.02% for varietal classification and geographical origin identification, respectively. These results demonstrate that HSI combined with deep learning has the potential to accurately classify a large number of wheat varieties. Moreover, HSI can be used to precisely identify the geographical origins of wheat seeds. This study provides an accurate and nondestructive method that can assist in breeding, quality evaluation, and the development of high-quality wheat seeds.