Recent applications of machine learning, remote sensing, and iot approaches in yield prediction: a critical review

The integration of remote sensing and machine learning in agriculture is transforming the industry by providing insights and predictions through data analysis. This combination leads to improved yield prediction and water management, resulting in increased efficiency, better yields, and more sustainable agricultural practices. Achieving the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals, especially "zero hunger," requires the investigation of crop yield and precipitation gaps, which can be accomplished through, the usage of artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), remote sensing (RS), and the internet of things (IoT). By integrating these technologies, a robust agricultural mobile or web application can be developed, providing farmers and decision-makers with valuable information and tools for improving crop management and increasing efficiency. Several studies have investigated these new technologies and their potential for diverse tasks such as crop monitoring, yield prediction, irrigation management, etc. Through a critical review, this paper reviews relevant articles that have used RS, ML, cloud computing, and IoT in crop yield prediction. It reviews the current state-of-the-art in this field by critically evaluating different machine-learning approaches proposed in the literature for crop yield prediction and water management. It provides insights into how these methods can improve decision-making in agricultural production systems. This work will serve as a compendium for those interested in yield prediction in terms of primary literature but, most importantly, what approaches can be used for real-time and robust prediction.