Citrus AI wins Rep. Greg Steube’s 2024 Congressional App Challenge in Florida’s 17th District

When asked what inspired the creation of Citrus AI, the student said, “Having lived in Florida for almost my entire life, I have been exposed to the challenges the local Citrus industry has been facing over the past several years. Apart from natural disasters like hurricanes and frost, the citrus plants have been infected severely by different diseases, leading to death of the plant, which has led to closure of several orchards. Many people have lost their sole means of livelihood, and it also impacts the economy of the state severely. The diseases cause a loss of production of the fruit resulting in a rise in citrus fruit prices thereby impacting the consumers. 

Florida witnessed a steep downfall in citrus crop production, from 150 million boxes in 2015 to a mere 16 million boxes in 2023 –a drop of 90% of citrus production in less than 10 years! Between 2002 and 2017, the number of citrus growers in Florida saw a 62% decline. This is particularly biting in a state where the citrus industry supports over 32,000 jobs, $1.61 billion in labor income per of the 2020-2021 marketing year data.

Diagnosis of various types of citrus diseases are usually made by human experts, but manual detection has several challenges such as it being time consuming and human error prone. Therefore, automated techniques such as image processing and artificial intelligence can be used to improve citrus disease detection. Deep Learning, which is a sub-branch of AI, enables computers to build algorithms, recognize patterns in data, and make predictions based on the data.

There are several helpful websites that provide information about the challenges the citrus diseases pose to Florida’s citrus industry. However, one key factor that is lacking in most if not all of these websites is that they don’t offer the capabilities of the latest AI technology, for our citrus farmers to self-detect citrus diseases.

I wanted to do my part in helping the citrus industry by building a user-friendly website that not only hosts relevant information but also provides the option to detect citrus diseases via the automated, AI powered tool. This will lead to accurate, timely and easy detection of diseases that will in turn support prompt disease remediation.”