Abstract
The strawberry (Fragaria × ananassa Duch.) is a high-value crop with an annual cultivated area of ~500 ha in Taiwan. Over 90% of strawberry cultivation is in Miaoli County. Unfortunately, various diseases significantly decrease strawberry production. The leaf and fruit disease became an epidemic in 1986. From 2010 to 2016, anthracnose crown rot caused the loss of 30–40% of seedlings and ~20% of plants after transplanting. The automation of agriculture and image recognition techniques are indispensable for detecting strawberry diseases. We developed an image recognition technique for the detection of strawberry diseases using a convolutional neural network (CNN) model. CNN is a powerful deep learning approach that has been used to enhance image recognition. In the proposed technique, two different datasets containing the original and feature images are used for detecting the following strawberry diseases—leaf blight, gray mold, and powdery mildew. Specifically, leaf blight may affect the crown, leaf, and fruit and show different symptoms. By using the ResNet50 model with a training period of 20 epochs for 1306 feature images, the proposed CNN model achieves a classification accuracy rate of 100% for leaf blight cases affecting the crown, leaf, and fruit; 98% for gray mold cases, and 98% for powdery mildew cases. In 20 epochs, the accuracy rate of 99.60% obtained from the feature image dataset was higher than that of 1.53% obtained from the original one. This proposed model provides a simple, reliable, and cost-effective technique for detecting strawberry diseases.
Highlights
Crop pests and diseases are major problems in the agricultural industry that cause significant losses to food production
The confusion matrix shows the final detection results of the original and feature image dataset with the training period of 20 epochs of the GoogLeNet model (Figure 1)
The classification accuracy rate was 100% for leaf blight caused by crown rot and powdery mildew for the original image dataset (Figure 1a)
Summary
Crop pests and diseases are major problems in the agricultural industry that cause significant losses to food production. [11], the causal agent of crown rot, fruit rot and leaf blight [7]; and other fungi that cause powdery mildew, which affects petioles [12], leaves, and fruits in a strawberry-specific manner [13]. These pathogens interfere with photosynthesis and negatively impact fruit quality, growth, and productivity. Developing a rapid, accurate, automated technique to detect strawberry diseases is required
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