Big data and machine learning for crop protection

•This paper presents a review of some significant research efforts in crop protection using Big data with the focus on weed control and management .•Some machine learning techniques for Big data analytics are also reviewed.•The potential of using Markov random fields (MRF) for herbicide resistance modeling of ryegrass is explored.•Experiments and data analytics have been performed on data collected from farms in Australia.•Results have revealed the good performance of this approach.