The Influence Paths of Agricultural Mechanization on Green Agricultural Development
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
This is a very interesting paper that has good potential to contribute to contemporary literature. The theoretical basis is strongly argued. However, the paper misses several critical arguments in relation to agricultural mechanization and green agriculture development. These include such as the impact of urbanization, forestry, impact on water, financial schemes for mechanization, equipment maintenance, ageing agricultural population, agricultural community resilience, amongst others. While the paper need not include these in the detailed research, it should note these as important factors that are not addressed. This will provide realistic boundaries to the research and assist future researchers to build on the valuable work carried out by investigating the impact of these other important factors in achieving the balance between mechanization and green agriculture.
Also, the main thread of argument is reasonably distinct, but some aspects are not clearly stated e.g. the positive and negative aspects of labour. this may be due to language but it is worth taking the effort to sharpen the specific concepts. The overall presentation, grammar and spelling can be improved. Please spell out first use of abbreviations.
Overall worthwhile article but would benefit by further effort to improve.
Author Response
Question 1: Some factors were ignored such as urbanization, forestry, ageing agricultural population.
Answer: We agree with you that these factors are also very important for the green development of agriculture. However, it is impossible for an empirical model to include all factors that affect green agricultural development. These factors are not the focus of this paper. Therefore, our models don't take these variables into account. This suggestion is still valuable very much because it provides a good perspective for the following study of green agricultural development. Thank you very much.
Question 2: Due to the language, more effort should be taken to sharpen the specific concepts. The overall presentation, grammar and spelling can be improved. Please spell out first use of abbreviations.
Answer: Thank you for the suggestion. It is important to make our paper better. First, we spell out first use of abbreviations such as the system Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) model, the green total factor productivity (GTFP). Second, we make the major concepts more concrete. For example, “Arellano–Bond test for first-order (AR1) and second-order (AR2) serial correlation can be used to verify the autocorrelation of the disturbance term. The validity of the instrumental variables can be proved by Sargan test. All AR (1) results reject the null hypothesis of no autocorrelation at the 10% level, but AR (2) results don’t. The results of Sargan tests show that all instrumental variables are valid.”. We also show some concrete applications of the methods such as the SBM model, the mediation model. For example, “The mediation model has been used to evaluate the influence paths of factors. It has been developed well in many research areas. Zhang et al. (2020) built five regression equations to investigate the impact of farm size, labors and capital input in agricultural labor productivity [38]. Chen et al. (2020) used parallel multiple mediator model to explore the mediating effect of technology in carbon emission [39].”. Third, some problems including grammar and spelling have been corrected carefully. Thank you again.
Reviewer 2 Report
General comments
-This manuscript, by Authors., studied “The influence paths of agricultural mechanization on green agricultural development”.
Overall, the topic is of interest to Sustainability, readers.
Specific Comments and Suggestions
Title
Title can be improved by providing a short and ground breaking claim. Specifically related to sustainable way.
-Abstract
-Please broaden your significance of work, not to limited with just one big country. Can put
“An important goal of agricultural mechanization transformation and upgrading is to pro-mote green agricultural development in China”
-the system GMM model? GMM abbreviation or what?
“In this paper, the system Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) is constructed to test the impact of agricultural mechanization on green agricultural development.”
Should mention first then, later can use abbreviation.
-Better to mention or highlight your results with important suggestions as concept of green agricultural development.
“Therefore, this paper puts forward important suggestions for the high-quality development of agricultural mechanization based on the trend of large-scale agricultural machinery development and the concept of green agricultural development.”
In introduction section, literature reveview should be logically present related to your work. It can be improved
-Other parts are organized as follows. First, based on theoretical analysis, we discuss the direct and indirect mechanism of agricultural mechanization on green agricultural development.
What do want to say?
Hypothesis or objectives?
Better to specified with points.
-Introduction
-Please broaden your significance of work world widely.
-GTFP directly…. abbreviation or what?
- He et al. (2021) investigated the agricultural production of mainland China and found that mechanized deep ploughing and scarifica-tion can promote green agricultural development[13]. Check space.
-Materials and Methods
Description of methods explained well. But, whether it’s all by authors’ own methodology? Please cite some references for how developed these equations?
Or
If use other methods and equations then betterto cite them for supporting your methodology scientifically.
Too random way of showing your hypothesis that's confusing your objectives.
If comparison then, can add table to present clearly.
pH1: agricultural mechanization mainly plays a direct role in promoting the green development of agriculture in China. ut forward the following theoretical hypotheses:
H2: The transfer of agricultural labors plays a significant positive mediating role between agricultural mechanization and green agricultural development.
H3: Pesticide investment plays a significant mediating role between agricultural mechanization and green agricultural development.
H4: Fertilizer input plays a significant intermediary role between agricultural mechanization and green agricultural development.
-Data is mainly from Statistical Yearbooks and China Rural Statistical Yearbooks from 2002 to 2018
Source of data please? Website or any copyrite?
-Results and discussion
-All AR (1) reject the null hypothesis at the 10% level, but AR (2) and Sargan test don’t. Therefore, the setting of each model is reasonable.
Can improve your meaning.
Detailed resulted mentioned but discussion can be improved with other studies.
Modelling approach related to your work supported by other studies? References please?
-Conclusions
State with your specific finding and significance.
Is this study limited to China or can be implemented to worldwide? Can broaden your conclusion first then later specified for China.
-Make sure you are presenting only new theoretical findings that originate firstly from your work and are not deducible from other literature, clearly indicate whether your research hypothesis tends to be confirmed or not?
-Explain in your results with a discussion how you have drawn this conclusion?
Comments for author File: 
Comments.pdf
Author Response
1. Comment on Title: Title can be improved by providing a short and ground breaking claim. Specifically related to sustainable way.
Answer: Green agricultural development is an important part of sustainable agricultural development. The title can express the main content of our paper well. Therefore, we won’t change the title. However, the suggestion is still valuable because it makes me know that the previous paper lacked some content about sustainable development. In Introduction of the new paper, we have discussed the link between green development and sustainable development in agriculture. Thank you very much.
2. Comments on Abstract:
(1) Please broaden your significance of work, not to limited with just one big country.
(2) The system GMM model? GMM abbreviation or what?
(3) Better to mention or highlight your results with important suggestions as concept of green agricultural development.
Answers: Thank you for these valuable comments. We have improved the Abstract as follows.
(1) We have changed the first sentence of the abstract and broaden the paper’s significance. The new sentence is “For achieving sustainable agricultural development, increasing efforts are put on promoting agricultural mechanization and green agricultural development all over the world”.
(2) The system GMM model is replaced with the System Generalized Method of Moments model. In the new paper, we also spell out first use of other abbreviations such as the green total factor productivity (GTFP).
(3) We rewrote the suggestions to highlight the concept of green agricultural development. The new suggestions are “Therefore, it is important for green agricultural development to encourage human capital investment in agricultural mechanization. In addition, more attention should be paid to improving the input efficiency of fertilizers and pesticides so that agriculture will be sustainable in production and ecological environment.”
3. Comments on Introduction:
(1) Please broaden your significance of work world widely.
(2) GTFP directly…. abbreviation or what?
(3) He et al. (2021) investigated the agricultural production of mainland China and found that mechanized deep ploughing and scarification can promote green agricultural development. Check space.
(4) In introduction section, literature review should be logically present related to your work. It can be improved
(5) Other parts are organized as follows. First, based on theoretical analysis, we discuss the direct and indirect mechanism of agricultural mechanization on green agricultural development. What do want to say? Hypothesis or objectives? Better to specified with points.
Answers: We are sorry for these mistakes. According to your valuable suggestions, our improvements are as follows.
(1) The original paper only focused on China's agricultural development and ignored the global. Therefore, we add the green development of global agriculture in the first paragraph of the Introduction. For example, “The United States, which has a high level of agricultural mechanization, was the first to put forward the agricultural green subsidy program. The plan made agricultural production subsidies converted into agricultural pollution subsidies.”
(2) The GTFP is the green total factor productivity, which has been spell out in the new paper.
(3) There is no wrong about space in the sentence. It's the layout of the paragraph that causes large spaces between words. We have changed the sentence as “He et al. (2021) found that mechanized deep ploughing and scarification can promote green agricultural development in the agricultural production of mainland China”.
(4) We have improved the logic of literature review and cited some new literature in the new paper. For example, “increasing scholars have focused on the relationship between agricultural mechanization and green agricultural development. Isaak et al. (2020) tried to reduce the consumption of fossil energy in sweet corn cultivation by studying the optimal scale of agricultural mechanization and the combination of production factors to in Malaysia.”
(5) There is no assumptions or concepts in the last paragraph of the Introduction. It only introduces the structure of this paper so that readers can have a general understanding of the content and methods of our paper.
4. Comments on Materials and Methods:
(1) Description of methods explained well. But, whether it’s all by authors’ own methodology? Please cite some references for how developed these equations?
(2) Data is mainly from Statistical Yearbooks and China Rural Statistical Yearbooks from 2002 to 2018. Source of data please? Website or any copyrite?
Answers: Thank you again. These materials and methods have been labeled in the new paper.
(1) These methods are common in our research area. Some new references have been cited so that readers can understand these methods better. For example, Berk et al. (2020) used the system GMM approach to assess the convergence in renewable energy consumption.
(2) Statistical Yearbooks and China Rural Statistical Yearbooks are copyright that belong to National Bureau of Statistics. The website has been cited at the end of the paper. For introducing the data sources better, the following changes have been made in this paper. “This paper selected balanced panel data of 31 provinces in China from 2002 to 2018. Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan were excluded for lack of relevant data. All data comes from National Bureau of Statistics.”
5. Comments on Results and discussion:
(1) All AR (1) reject the null hypothesis at the 10% level, but AR (2) and Sargan test don’t. Therefore, the setting of each model is reasonable. Can improve your meaning.
(2) Detailed resulted mentioned but discussion can be improved with other studies.
(3) Modelling approach related to your work supported by other studies? References please?
Answers: Thank you for these suggestions. They make our discussion more rigorous.
(1) In the new paper, the sentence is improved as “Arellano–Bond test for first-order (AR1) and second-order (AR2) serial correlation can be used to verify the autocorrelation of the disturbance term. The validity of the instrumental variables can be proved by Sargan test. All AR (1) results reject the null hypothesis of no autocorrelation at the 10% level, but AR (2) results don’t. The results of Sargan tests show that all instrumental variables are valid.”
(2) We all agree with the suggestion. Therefore, we compare our conclusions with others. For example, when we discussed the labor transfer, we cited the discussion of Wang et al. (2020).
(3) In the new paper, some other studies have been cited to support our modelling approaches that include the GMM model, mediation model and so on. For example, Nunfam et al. (2021) used Simple slope test to verify the moderation mechanism.
6. Comments on Conclusions:
(1) State with your specific finding and significance.
(2) Is this study limited to China or can be implemented to worldwide? Can broaden your conclusion first then later specified for China.
(3) Make sure you are presenting only new theoretical findings that originate firstly from your work and are not deducible from other literature, clearly indicate whether your research hypothesis tends to be confirmed or not?
(4) Explain in your results with a discussion how you have drawn this conclusion?
Answers: Thank you. Your comments do make us understand that the significance of the paper is so limited that our paper lacks a global perspective. The changes in new paper are as follows:
(1), (2) For making the paper’s significance implemented to worldwide, we add some sentences as follows. “For many countries, promoting agricultural mechanization is an important way to increase agricultural production and reduce agricultural pollution emissions. It is important for green agricultural development to understand how machinery input affects GTFP. In addition, the sustainable development of global agriculture will face more opportunities and challenges in the future because of the trend of large-scale development of agricultural machinery.”
(3) Yes, we are sure that these conclusions are our findings. There may be some papers with similar results. But our study is more systematic and consistent with the requirements of sustainable development. We have indicated that our hypotheses are confirmed in relevant places.
(4) According to your valuable suggestions, we introduce methods before explaining results in the new paper. For example, “Labor transfer, fertilizer input and pesticide input were taken as intermediate variables to study the impact path of agricultural mechanization. What’s more, the changing regular of different paths was explored under different proportion of large agricultural machinery.”
Finally, we thank you for your valuable suggestions sincerely. We’ve learned a lot from it.
Reviewer 3 Report
- Theoretical Analysis
We suggest the authors to explain in a clear manner the way in which the study responds to the four hypothesis they formulate
- Results and Discussion
We suggest the authors to mention and give a short description of Arellano-Bond in paragraph 3. Data and Methodology
References
We suggest the authors to use more bibliographical sources.
Please detail the original contribution of the paper to the state of art, you mention in Introduction paragraph (pg 2), ” focuse on the direct impact of agricultural mechanization on green agricultural development rather than the indirect effect of agricultural mechanization” and ” he inertia and endogeneity of green agricultural development”.
Author Response
1. Comment on Theoretical Analysis: We suggest the authors to explain in a clear manner the way in which the study responds to the four hypothesis they formulate.
Answer: Thank you very much. For verifying the four hypotheses better, we have made some changes. For example, “If is significant, Hypothesis 1 will be confirmed and increasing machinery power can promote the green agricultural development. When MED is , if and are positive significantly, Hypothesis 2 is credible and the positive mediating effect of labor transfer is significant. When MED is or , if and are significant, Hypothesis 3 or 4 is also reasonable”. What’s more, we have specified the hypothesis verification in relevant place in the new paper. For example, “It shows that labor transfer, pesticide input and chemical fertilizer input all have stable mediating effect between agricultural mechanization and green agricultural development. Therefore, Hypotheses 2, 3, and 4 are proved”.
2. Comment on Results and Discussion: We suggest the authors to mention and give a short description of Arellano-Bond in paragraph 3. Data and Methodology.
Answer: Thank you for the valuable suggestion. Arellano–Bond test for first-order (AR1) and second-order (AR2) serial correlation can be used to verify the autocorrelation of the disturbance term. The validity of the instrumental variables can be proved by Sargan test. All AR (1) results reject the null hypothesis of no autocorrelation at the 10% level, but AR (2) results don’t. The results of Sargan tests show that all instrumental variables are valid. What’s more, we also present other methods in more detail. For example, “The mediation model has been used to evaluate the influence paths of factors. It has been developed well in many research areas. Zhang et al. (2020) built five regression equations to investigate the impact of farm size, labors and capital input in agricultural labor productivity [38]. Chen et al. (2020) used parallel multiple mediator model to explore the mediating effect of technology in carbon emission [39].”
3. Comment on References: We suggest the authors to use more bibliographical sources. Please detail the original contribution of the paper to the state of art, you mention in Introduction paragraph (pg 2), “focuse on the direct impact of agricultural mechanization on green agricultural development rather than the indirect effect of agricultural mechanization” and “the inertia and endogeneity of green agricultural development”.
Answer: Thank you. it’s important to refer to more literature. We not only added literature review, but also introduced relevant literature appropriately to some methods in the new paper. For example, Nunfam et al. (2021) used Simple slope test to verify the moderation mechanism. For detailing the original contribution of the paper better, we have revised paragraph 5 of the Introduction in the new paper. For example, “In this paper, the system Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) model was constructed to deal with the inertia and endogeneity of related variables in the process of the green agricultural development. Thus, the regression results are more credible. What’s more, the mediation model was used to study both the direct and indirect effects of agricultural mechanization on agricultural green development. The mechanism of agricultural mechanization affecting green agricultural development was analyzed to make up for the lack of existing literature. Therefore, the research perspective is more comprehensive.”
Finally, thank you again. These valuable suggestion makes our paper better. Please, more details can be seen in attached file.
