Optimal quantum reservoir computing for market forecasting: An application to fight food price crises

The emerging technology of quantum reservoir computing (QRC) stands out in the noisy-intermediate scale quantum era (NISQ) for its exceptional efficiency and adaptability. By harnessing the power of quantum computing, it holds a great potential to untangle complex economic markets, as demonstrated here in an application to food price crisis prediction - a critical effort in combating food waste and establishing sustainable food chains. Nevertheless, a pivotal consideration for its success is the optimal design of the quantum reservoirs, ensuring both high performance and compatibility with current devices. In this paper, we provide an efficient criterion for that purpose, based on the complexity of the reservoirs. Our results emphasize the crucial role of optimal design in the algorithm performance, especially in the absence of external regressor variables, showcasing the potential for novel insights and transformative applications in the field of time series prediction using quantum computing.