A vision-based autonomous system for emasculating okra enhances agriculture by enabling precise flower bud identification, overcoming the labor-intensive, error-prone challenges of traditional manual methods with improved accuracy and efficiency. This study presents a framework for an adaptive, automated bud identification method to assist the emasculation process, hybridized optical coherence tomography (OCT). Three YOLOv8 variants were evaluated for accuracy, detection speed, and frame rate to identify the most efficient model. To strengthen the findings, YOLO was hybridized with OCT, enabling non-invasive sub-surface verification and precise quantification of the emasculated depth of both sepal and petal layers of the flower bud. To establish a solid benchmark, gold standard color histograms and a digital imaging-based method under optimal lighting conditions with confidence scoring were also employed. The results demonstrated that the proposed method significantly outperformed these conventional frameworks, providing superior accuracy and layer differentiation during emasculation. Hence, the developed YOLOv8 hybridized OCT method for flower bud identification and emasculation offers a powerful tool to significantly improve both the precision and efficiency of crop breeding practices. This framework sets the stage for implementing scalable, artificial intelligence (AI)-driven strategies that can modernize and optimize traditional crop breeding workflows.

Bio-fencing could be used as an effective tool for human-elephant conflict mitigation, yet the plant species currently used need to be more viable.Polyalthia longifoliais reported to be having antifeedant properties against herbivores and is repellent to them. Accordingly, two cases were studied to evaluate the antifeedant and repellency nature of the plant by offeringP. longifolia; (1) to wild elephants in 03 locations in Mahaweli System D, Sri Lanka and (2) to tamed elephants of 03 age groups. The preference of tamed elephants were further evaluated giving leafy materials; coconut, fishtail palm, grass mixture, andP. longifoliasimultaneously. As a necessary consequence, this study was intended to (3) assess the relative levels of moisture, ash, crude fat, crude fiber, crude protein and (4) organic volatile compounds responsible for the odor of offered plant materials using a PEN3 electronic nose, and to (5) determine the relationship between leaf proximate parameters with palatability responses and (6) organic volatile compounds. Results showed that the wild elephants prevent their movement through their routes by placing bunches ofP. longifolialeaf branches. Tamed elephants showed abnormal responses againstP. longifoliaparticularly movements of their body compared to the rest of feeding materials implying that the leaves ofP. longifoliaare antifeedant and repellant to them, suggesting the greater potential as an effective bio-fence against elephants. However, estimated differences in leaf proximate parameters and relative levels of organic volatile compounds did not reveal the witnessed contrasting repellency ofP. longifolia.