Exploring Environmental Factors Affecting Strawberry Yield Using Pattern Recognition Techniques

Abstract

This paper investigates the importance of various environmental factors that have a strong influence on strawberry yields grown in greenhouse using the pattern recognition methods. The environmental factors influencing the production of strawberries were six factors such as average inside temperature, average inside humidity, average CO₂ level, average soil temperature, cumulative solar radiation, and average illumination. The results of analyzing the observed data using Dynamic Time Warping (DTW) showed that the most significant factor influencing the strawberry production was average soil temperature, average inside humidity, and cumulative solar radiation. Second, the results of analyzing the observed data using Multidimensional Scaling (MDS) showed that the most influential factors on the strawberry yields, such as average CO2 level, average inside humidity, and average illumination were differently given for each farms. However, these results are based on the distance in 3D space and can be deduced from the fact that there is not a large difference between these distances. Therefore, in order to increase the harvest of strawberries cultivated in the farms, it is necessary to manage the environmental factors such as thoroughly controlling the humidity and maintaining the concentration of CO₂ constantly by ventilation of the greenhouse.