Sustainability of Livestock Farming in South Africa. Outlook on Production Constraints, Climate-Related Events, and Upshot on Adaptive Capacity

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

In my opinion, the manuscript entitled "Sustainability of livestock farming in South Africa. Outlook on production constraints, climate-related events, and upshot on adaptive capacity" can be published in Sustainability after minor revision.

 

The article is interesting, but Authors should correct the manuscript according to comments. 

Authors should add detailed information about the examined group. The manuscript contains 12 tables; are they all needed (Table 8)? connect?

Add more information about the results of the study.

Correct Reference.

Details of my comments are in the attached file.

 

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

Author Response

Response to Reviewer 1 Comments

 

 

Point 1: Keywords, with a capital letter

Response 1: The alphabet K in the “keywords” was in capital letter. No change was made.

 

Point 2: The letter W, where n is the sample size.

Response 2: The letter W, was changed to a small letter.

 

Point 3: Two district municipalities?

Response 3: The two districts municipalities earmarked for the study are Bojanala and Ngaka Modiri Molema (NMM). This was mentioned on page 4, lines 2 and 3.

 

Point 4: PCA and the linear combination equation

Response 4: PCA and the linear combination equation equations were edited accordingly.

 

Point 5: Add characteristics of the group gender:  % man, % woman..........

Response 5: Characteristics of the group gender were added.

 

Point 6: Edit the heading for Table 5 and 6

Response 6: Heading for Table 5 and 6 were edited.

 

Point 7: Move Table 6

Response 7: Table 6 was moved.

 

Point 8: Table 4 not after Table 6

Response 8: Changes were effected.

 

Point 9: Is Table 8 important? Add results to text?

Response 9: Yes, it is important. Text to Table 8 was in page 11, immediately below Table 9.

 

Point 10: No reference to Table 9.

Response 10: Reference to Table 9 was made on page 11, immediately below Table 9. However, Table 7 shows the principal component analysis of the variables that were presented as a constraint to production, in which their categories, frequency, percentages, and proportion were shown in Table 6 for clarity and better understanding.

 

Point 11: what kind of coefficient?

Response 11: This is a normal coefficient, I suppose, and not robust.

 

Point 12: what is it, table???? On page

Response 12: This is not a Table, however, it’s a continuation of Table 10, showing the likelihood ratio test, and all that.

 

Point 13: Table 11: Predictive margins test, ???? on Model VCE: OIM

Response 13: Model VCE: OIM, on Table 11, show the predictive margin test of the adaptive capacity, their categorical measurement, which justifies the use of an ordered probit model.

 

Point 14: Add more information to Figure 2

Response 14: Changes were effected.

 

Point 15: On conclusion, add more information - results of the study

Response 15: Few information was added.

 

 

 

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 2 Report

This is a VERY important paper, and well designed and executed study, not only for the application to the geographical area in which it was done, but to the important topic of sustainability of livestock production and its importance to human food supply in response to changing climates. 

I believe that this paper can serve (with its excellent Bibliography) as a template for future work with application to virtually every area of livestock production, regardless of the species or intensity of production. 

I URGE fast-track of this paper into press so that its value can be used in future work.

Author Response

No corrections were required.