Multispectral imaging allows a quick and non-destructive determination of the seed viability of <i>Vicia sativa</i>

Fast, non-destructive and low-cost detection of seed viability is important for seed storage and agricultural production. In this study, multispectral imaging (MSI) was applied to identify the seed viability of three cultivars of <i>Vicia sativa</i>. The results showed that both linear discriminant analysis (LDA) and support vector machine (SVM) for specific cultivars showed a high accuracy in distinguishing viable and non-viable seeds. Seed imbibition favoured seed viability discrimination in three cultivars with either LDA or SVM. However, the cultivar-specific transferability is quite low among cultivars regardless of their imbibition state in our study. These results suggested that MSI could be developed as a fast and cost-effective seed viability classification method for any specific cultivar of <i>Vicia sativa.</i> However, the low transferability of the discrimination model among cultivars may limit this technology application in more general scenarios.