Two-Level Classifier Ensembles for Coffee Rust Estimation in Colombian Crops

Rust is a disease that leads to considerable losses in the worldwide coffee industry. There are many contributing factors to the onset of coffee rust e.g. Crop management decisions and the prevailing weather. In Colombia the coffee production has been considerably reduced by 31% on average during the epidemic years compared with 2007. Recent research efforts focus on detection of disease incidence using simple classifiers. Authors in the computer field propose alternatives for improve the outcomes, making use of techniques that combine classifiers named ensemble methods. Therefore they proposed two-level classifier ensembles for coffee rust estimation in Colombian crops using Back Propagation Neural Networks, Regression Tree M5 and Support Vector Regression. Their ensemble approach outperformed the classical approaches as simple classifiers and ensemble methods in terms of Pearson's Correlation Coefficient, Mean Absolute Error and Root Mean Squared Error.