**1. Introduction**

Strawberry is a berry-like fruit that can be widely produced in almost all regions of the world, including tropical and subtropical regions. At the same time, its production and trade have been increasing around the world and in Turkey as it is one of the most profitable fruits due to its nutritional value and benefits for human health. In addition, the demand for marketing of fresh strawberries is higher in the world market because strawberries involve higher costs and are widely used either fresh or in prepared foods, such as fruit juices, jams, jellies, ice creams, chocolates, pies, syrups, pastries, and many beverages [1, 2]. Strawberry holds the most important place among the grape-like fruits in the world. It is preferred by consumers because it is the first fruit to ripen in the spring when no other fruit is available. For this reason, fruits can find buyers at high prices until other fruits reach the market. According to data from the Food and Agriculture Organization in 2019, world strawberry production is 8.885.028 tons. While China ranks first with 3.2 million tons of production, the USA ranks second with 1 million tons and Mexico ranks third with 861 thousand tons. 36.2% of total strawberry cultivation is provided by China in the world. Regarding the cultivation area, China leads with 126 thousand/ha, Poland is second with 50 thousand hectares, and Russia is third with 31 thousand hectares. According to world trade data for strawberries, the export amount of fresh and frozen strawberries in

2020 was 1.6 million tons. While there was a decrease in the export of frozen strawberries from Spain compared to previous years, it was estimated that the export of frozen strawberries from Mexico will increase and it will rank second with 1.7 million tons in 2020. It is predicted that the size of the world strawberry market may reach 22.450 million dollars by 2026 and that the USA alone can generate 18.370 million dollars in the world strawberry market in 2020. It is expected that world strawberry production will increase by 3.4% between 2021 and 2026. According to FAO data, an increase of 39.4% was observed between 2008 and 2018 when world strawberry production is examined. This objectifies the significant increase in the world strawberry production and market. This is an important profitability indicator in terms of strawberry production in the world [3]. In recent years, an increase of 3.1% was observed in the United States of America, which is an important country for the import of frozen strawberries or fresh strawberries, followed by Germany with an increase of 3% and Canada in the third place with an increase of 3.3%.

According to TUIK data, strawberry production in Turkey was expected to increase from 546 thousand tons to 646 thousand tons by the end of 2020 with an increase of 18.2% compared to the previous year. Turkey's foreign trade of strawberries is carried out in two ways as fresh and frozen strawberries. As most of the strawberries produced are consumed domestically, only 8.8% of the total strawberry production was exported in 2020. In addition, Turkey has become one of the most important strawberry producer countries in the world recently and exports strawberries to countries such as Russia, Serbia, Macedonia, Iraq, Bulgaria, and Romania. Although it ranks fourth in world in strawberry production, Turkey comes twelfth in terms of exports since, as mentioned before, the strawberries produced are consumed domestically. Strawberry exports in 2020 increased by 14.7% compared to the previous year and reached 47.912 tons. Strawberry exports became doubled in the last five years. Strawberry imports, on the other hand, vary from year to year but do not have a significant volume. According to the data from the Turkish Statistical Institute (thousand tons), Turkey exported 27.914 tons of strawberries in the first four months of 2021. During the first four-month period, Turkey exported about 14.543 tons to Russia with a rate of 44%, and about 4.129 tons to Iraq with a rate of 14% and the rest to other countries. Based on the above data, there was a significant increase in both strawberry production and the market in the world and in Turkey [4].

While rapid population growth and a corresponding increase in food supply motivate research about agricultural production, the aim is also to produce more with lower costs by using new production techniques for the production of strawberries. In this context, measuring plant features and determining these characteristics accurately in terms of various plant growing and breeding studies, especially in strawberry and vegetable breeding, is one of the most compelling factors for researchers and producers. One of the most important criteria in plant growing and breeding is to quickly and accurately estimate plant genetics within the plant populations to be bred and monitor plant health and development every minute. For this purpose, in a study conducted by Zheng et al. [5], remote sensing and machine learning techniques were used immensely for high-throughput phenotyping technology. Multiple sensors including high-resolution RGB (red-green-blue), multispectral, hyperspectral chlorophyll fluorescence and light detection and ranging (LiDAR) sensors were used in order to allow a range of spatial and spectral resolutions depending on the trait in question. At the same time, in this study, the computer vision and machine learning methodology for plant recognition provided great convenience in evaluating useful biological information and drawing conclusions quickly from these image data. They

#### *Strawberry Cultivation Techniques DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.104611*

discovered that these tools allowed the evaluation of various morphological, structural, biophysical and biochemical features of plants. In addition, the researchers pointed out in this study that remote sensing and machine learning facilitate strawberry cultivation with features such as (1) fruit/flower detection, fruit maturity, fruit quality, internal fruit attributes, fruit shape and yield prediction; (2) leaf and canopy attributes; (3) water stress; and (4) pest and disease detection. As a result, this study showed that the use of remote sensing and machine learning technologies will provide significant convenience as they respond quickly, accurately, and effectively to future prospects for strawberries in precision agriculture. In recent years, the use of mechanization and automation systems in plant production has been increasing rapidly. This chapter aims to analyze and evaluate in detail the academic studies about soil-less agriculture, vertical farming, hydroponic method, smart greenhouses based on sensor and software technology, and harvesting and packaging methods using the same technologies, which are among the new production techniques for strawberry cultivation. Additionally, the aim was to find answers to questions about which new strategy should be used by examining the latest developments and new perspectives in world strawberry production in terms of production techniques.
