By 2050, about 70% of extra food production is needed to feed the world’s population. As a majority staple food, the expansion of rice production should be accelerated. This systematic literature review, which is partitioned into four main stages i.e., query entry into multiple database sources, article title filtering, abstract filtering, and final article selection, aims to discover the factors that influence rice yields. The results show that genetics, irrigation system management, and farmers’ long-evolved local knowledge or experiences, are the three big factors that elevate the rice production rates. Nevertheless, global warming is a serious challenge that should be deeply considered due to its great impact on reducing rice yields by up to 14.5%. Thus, the development of genetically modified rice varieties needs to be escalated while still maintaining other exogenous factors.