The effect of curative and preventive optimal control measures on a fractional order plant disease model

In this paper, we present a novel mathematical model of fractional order for epidemic dynamics in plants, this fractional order model (FOM) in the sense of Caputo derivatives governing fractional differential equations (FDEs), introducing modified parameters to coincide both sides dimensions for FOM that means enhancing its accuracy in representing the real-life scenarios to control the spread of the epidemic. Our contributions include a comprehensive qualitative analysis of the proposed FOM, such as proving the existence and uniqueness of the projected solution by transforming our problem into a fixed point problem and applying a Banach contraction principle and Schauder’s fixed-point theorem. The positivity and boundedness of this solution are also demonstrated. We precisely evaluate all equilibrium points (EPs), examine their local and global stability by using Routh–Hurwitz conditions and fractional LaSalle’s invariance principle (LIP), respectively and shed light on the dynamic behavior of the FOM. Furthermore, we discuss the sensitivity analysis for parameters of the control reproduction number (CRN), with insightful plots to illustrate the model’s response to parameter changes (replanting and roguing parameters). From this foundation, we formulate a fractional optimal control problem (FOCP) by incorporating preventive u1 and curative u2 controls to effectively eliminate the propagation of the epidemic in plants. The fractional necessary optimality conditions (FNOCs) are derived attribution to Pontryagin’s maximum principle (PMP). We employ the forward–backward sweep method (FBSM) based on fractional Euler method (FEM) in order to facilitate control implementation and show the different suggested strategies. By enhancing this method, optimal control efforts are projected onto the FOM and yield three various strategies to impact the epidemic’s trajectory. For each strategy, we explain how the presence (i.e. with control cases) and absence (without control cases) of the proposed controls affected the susceptible, protected and infected plants. Some attractive figures with various values of the weight factor and fractional order α for the CRN are also presented, allowing a visual assessment of their impact on the dynamics of the epidemic in plants. In addition, we calculate the objective function for controlled and uncontrolled cases to provide a quantitative measure of its effectiveness in containing the outbreak in the plants. The results gained from our analyses and simulations provide valuable guidance for the management and elimination of epidemics in plants by offering various scenarios to implement the proposed controls.