Abstract: Machine learning technology, as an important component of core field of artificial intelligence, is now not only attracting extensive research interest in academic community, machine learning technology application potential and strategic value in agricultural industry are being continuously recognized and valued．In view of potential and importance of application of machine learning in agriculture, concepts and classification of machine learning was describes in detail through study of literature related to machine learning, and its characteristics, advantages and disadvantages, and current status of its application were reviewed in the context of management of crops during growing period, planting conditions, and yield requirements．Development and application of machine learning in disease and pest identification and control, crop growth monitoring, soil analysis, water resource analysis and optimization of irrigation and yield optimization were emphasized．Future research directions have been proposed based on existing problems in application of machine learning in smart agriculture．