The Impact of Livelihood Capital on Subjective Well-Being of New Professional Farmers: Evidence from China
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
The manuscript is clear, relevant for the field and presented in a well-structured manner. The cited references mostly recent publications and relevant. The manuscript is scientifically sound and the experimental is design appropriate to test the hypothesis. The manuscript’s results are reproducible based on the details given in the methods section. The tables are appropriate. They are properly show the data. The conclusions are consistent with the evidence and arguments presented.
Author Response
Thank you very much for reviewing our paper. We have made further revisions to the article, particularly in the conclusion and discussion sections, where we have provided more in-depth explanations and made more meticulous improvements in grammar and expression. We hope that these modifications will enhance the quality of the paper and contribute to its successful publication. Once again, we express our gratitude to you.
Reviewer 2 Report
Dear Author,
I’ve read your manuscript with big interest. Indeed, it addresses an internationally important (even if focused on one country), sustainability-related problem. It is based on a perfect study with appropriate methodology. The research question is reasonable, and the study allows answering it with certainty. The writing is clear. Although my general impression is positive, I recommend some improvements, which would benefit the manuscript to make it acceptable in “Sustainability”.
1) Title: please, try to shorten a bit and make it more attractive to the international research audience.
2) Key words: please, avoid the words from the title.
3) Introduction: please, explain the importance of the problem to not only China, but the entire world (with additional citations, please).
4) Data: what was the language of the survey, and how the translation in English may influence on your study?
5) You write about new (!) farmers, but the mean age is ~50 years. Please, explain briefly.
6) As the study is rather “massive” I recommend to separate Discussion and Conclusion.
7) Discussion: please, take the already available interpretations and add the explanation of your findings: why things are so as you register? Any comparison to the other countries would also be important. Also cite more literature in this section.
8) Discussion: please, add a table where the verification of ALL hypotheses proposed in the section 2 is shown (proven, partly proven, disproven). The related text should be added.
9) Conclusions: the numbered list of 5 main findings (3 from Results and 2 from Discussion), limitations, and perspectives for further research.
To me, the writing is clear and generally correct. Only slight polishing may help.
Author Response
Dear Reviewers:
On behalf of my co-authors, we thank you very much for giving us an opportunity to revise our manuscript. We appreciate the editor and reviewers very much for the positive and constructive comments and suggestions on our manuscript entitled " The impact of livelihood capital on subjective well-being of new professional farmers in China: mediating effect of income equity perception?"( sustainability -2512852). In this revised version, we have addressed all reviewers’ questions. A point-by-point response to the reviewer's comments is attached below, and the changes are marked in RED in the manuscript. We hope that these amendments will successfully address you concerns and requirements. We are looking forward to hearing from you soon.
Sincerely,
Long Niu
Response to Reviewer 2 Comments
Point 1: Title: please, try to shorten a bit and make it more attractive to the international research audience.
Response 1: Thank you very much for your suggestion. After thorough discussion, we have revised the title to "The impact of livelihood capital on subjective well-being of new professional farmers: evidence from China ", aiming to make it more appealing to the international research community. We hope this modification meets your satisfaction as well.
Point 2: Key words: please, avoid the words from the title.
Response 2：Thank you very much for your suggestion. We have reconsidered the expression of the keywords and made revisions accordingly. We hope these modifications meet your satisfaction. Please refer to line 25 of the main text for the specific changes.
Point 3: Introduction: please, explain the importance of the problem to not only China, but the entire world (with additional citations, please).
Response 3：Thank you very much for your suggestions. Although this study only employed samples from China, we believe that our research findings have important implications for the development of agricultural farmers in other countries as well. Therefore, in the introduction, we have added that this issue is not only significant in China but also important in other countries, and we have included more references to support this claim. Please refer to pages 2, lines 69-73 of the main text for more details.
Point 4: Data: what was the language of the survey, and how the translation in English may influence on your study?
Response 4：Thank you very much for your inquiry. During the process of data collection and questionnaire surveys, we used Mandarin Chinese, which is the commonly spoken language in China. Currently, the popularity rate of Mandarin Chinese in China has reached over 95%. Therefore, we were able to communicate smoothly and effectively with the respondents, and they understood the purpose of our study. Furthermore, since there have been numerous studies on topics such as new professional farmers, subjective well-being, and livelihood capital in the international community, the translation into English does not affect the validity of our research.
Point 5 : You write about new (!) farmers, but the mean age is ~50 years. Please, explain briefly.
Response 5：Thank you for your question. That's a good point. I would like to clarify that in this paper, the term "new professional farmers" does not imply that they are a young age group. Age is not a determining factor. Rather, it refers to the transformation of farmers through relevant training and knowledge acquisition, resulting in a new group that is cultured, skilled, and business-savvy. The expansion of this group can contribute to the achievement of China's rural revitalization strategic goals.
Point 6 : As the study is rather “massive” I recommend to separate Discussion and Conclusion.
Response 6：Thank you very much for your suggestion. I appreciate your feedback, and I have taken it into consideration. As a result, I have separated the conclusions and discussions into distinct sections. You can find the specific information in Section 5 and Section 6 of the main text.
Point 7 : Discussion: please, take the already available interpretations and add the explanation of your findings: why things are so as you register? Any comparison to the other countries would also be important. Also cite more literature in this section.
Response 7：Thank you very much for your suggestion. We have made revisions to the discussion section, focusing on explaining our research findings and emphasizing that these findings are not limited to China. They have important implications for the development of farmers in other countries as well. Additionally, we have included more references to support our statements. You can find the specific details in lines 581-586 of the main text.
Point 8 : Discussion: please, add a table where the verification of ALL hypotheses proposed in the section 2 is shown (proven, partly proven, disproven). The related text should be added.
Response 8：Thank you very much for your suggestion. We have added a figure in the discussion section to illustrate the validation of the hypotheses proposed in Section 2, and provided a detailed analysis. You can find the specific details in lines 595-605 of the main text.
Point 9 : Conclusions: the numbered list of 5 main findings (3 from Results and 2 from Discussion), limitations, and perspectives for further research.
Response 9：Thank you very much for your suggestion. In the conclusion section, we have clearly presented the research findings of this study and discussed the limitations as well as the prospects for further research. You can find the specific details in lines 639-649 of the main text.
Author Response File: 
Author Response.docx
