Currently, the implementation rate of agricultural field production technologies in China is not high, and a balanced production growth pattern of “multi-technology integration and large-scale popularization” has not yet been formed. In key areas such as agricultural technology, plant protection, soil fertility, and seeds, support measures are relatively isolated and synergistic effects lacked, which limited the improvement of agricultural production efficiency. Therefore, it has become a crucial task for current agricultural development to deeply explore and utilize the yield-increasing potential of production factors such as land, seeds, fertilizers, and pesticides, as well as various aspects of farming, planting, management, and harvesting, and to rapidly promote advanced and practical high-quality and high-efficiency varieties and technologies. Rice is a main food crop in China and plays a vital role in ensuring the country’s food security, social development, and human survival. Farmland is the foundation of grain production; however, approximately 7.67 million hectares (i.e., 24.4% of the total paddy fields area) in China are low-yield fields, which directly affects the stable growth of grain production. Clarifying the current situation and identifying obstacle factors for low-and medium-yield paddy fields in China is crucial to tapping their yield-increasing potential are of great significance for achieving sustained and stable increases in grain production. Based on the summary of a large amount of related literature, the medium- and low-yield paddy fields were classified as fertilised field, cold-gleyed field, bonded field, harden field and contaminated field. For these different types of paddy fields, the main obstacle factors were analyzed, and the corresponding improvement management measures and their application effects were reviewed. Finally, suggestions for future improvement research were proposed in light of the problems existing in the current improvement of low- and medium-yield paddy fields.