<![CDATA[Timely and accurate prediction of cocoa fruit ripeness is critical for optimizing harvest schedules, improving yield quality, and supporting post-harvest processing. Conventional visual inspection methods are prone to subjectivity and inconsistencies, especially when distinguishing among multiple ripeness levels based on fruit age. This study proposes a deep learning approach that leverages multi-model convolutional neural network transfer learning combined with image data augmentation to classify cocoa fruit into four maturity stages derived from fruit age. An augmented dataset of cocoa fruit images was used to fine-tune five well-established pre-trained models: MobileNetV2, Xception, ResNet50, DenseNet121, and DenseNet169. Data augmentation techniques were employed to increase variability and improve model generalization. Model evaluation was conducted using a standard 80:20 training-to-testing split to ensure sufficient data for learning while preserving a representative test set across all ripeness classes. The results demonstrate that DenseNet169 consistently outperformed other models, achieving the highest average accuracy of 85,05%, followed by DenseNet121 84,06%. Across all models, the use of data augmentation led to notable performance gains, highlighting its importance in enhancing predictive capability and reducing overfitting. The proposed framework shows promising potential for automating ripeness classification in agricultural contexts, offering a robust, scalable, and accurate solution for intelligent cocoa harvest management. This work contributes to the growing application of deep learning in precision agriculture, particularly in addressing fine-grained classification problems using limited but enriched visual data.]]>
