IoT-Based Mushroom Cultivation System with Solar Renewable Energy Integration: Assessing the Sustainable Impact of the Yield and Quality

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

This study aims to implement an IoT-enabled cultivation system to control and monitor the environmental parameters of Indian mushroom cultivation within the proposed innovative framework, as compared to conventional methods. The IoT-based cultivation system consists of hardware components, circuit connections, software, and algorithms. This study confirms that consistent control of environmental information, such as temperature and relative humidity, by a dynamic climate promotes mushroom growth that is superior to  conventional cultivation. Our findings reveal a substantial increase in the yield and quality of  mushrooms, demonstrating the tangible advantages of applying an innovative approach. Traditional cultivation yielded an average of 4.118 kilograms, whereas IoT-based cultivation systems produced an average of 5.306 kilograms.

The topic of the paper is interesting, however, the quality of the paper should be improved.  Detailed comments are given as:

1. The motivation is not clear, authors should improve the motivation. Please explain the importance of the IoT technology and solution in mushroom cultivation. In addition, it is suggested to improve the writing and organization of the paper.

2. What are the main contributions of this work, the authors should add the main contributions of this work at the of introduction.

3. Authors should check the whole manuscript for typos and grammar errors. For example Page 2, line 81, Huanga et al. [16], is it “Huanga” or “Huang”?

4.  The pseudocode of the algorithms are not written well. Please revise it and write in a good format along with labels, as there are no labels available (Algorithm 1 and Algorithm 2). In addition, authors should also discuss each every step of the algorithm.

5. In simulation results, authors should discuss why their proposed IoT-based technology performs better than other traditional techniques by providing suitable results. Moreover, which simulation platform is adopted? 

English language should be improved

Author Response

IoT-based Mushroom Cultivation System with Solar Renewable Energy Integration: Assessing the sustainable impact of the yield and quality

Reviewer No. (1)

Comment no.	Explanation/ Rebuttal	Page & paragraph  no. of a revised version
1st comment of the reviewer 1	We have rewritten the introduction and added the research motivation.	Page 2-4 in the introduction section
2nd comment of the reviewer 1	We have added the main contribution based on our research objectives.	Page 3-4 in the introduction section
3rd comment of the reviewer 1	We have double-checked the grammar errors and references throughout the whole manuscript.	In the whole manuscript.
4th comment of the reviewer 1	We have rewritten the description of the algorithm and the algorithm with comments labels using Python programming pseudocode. However, there is one algorithm. We are sorry for the mistake of using “Repeat Header Rows” when the table goes to the next page.	Revised section 2.4.5, page 14 at the algorithm section
5th comment of the reviewer 1	We have added the discussion to explain the suitable results of the proposed method.	Page 30, the section 4 discussion.

 

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 2 Report

The article "IoT-based Mushroom Cultivation System with Renewable Energy Integration: Assessing the sustainable impact of the yield and quality " present a novel idea for research community. However I found some minor mistakes that must be corrected in the final draft.

The authors are requested to incorporate the suggestions provided, for enhancing effectiveness of the manuscript.

1.  Due to the summer's excessive humidity and temperature, mushroom production  is significantly diminished. Please rephrase this line as Due to the humidity and temperature in summer season, the mushroom production is significantly diminished.

2. By adopting renewable energy, mitigating greenhouse gas emissions, and contributing to a greener and more sustainable agricultural sector, farmers  can reduce their reliance on nonrenewable resources. The authors will address the following research questions:  (1) How does the integration of IoT technologies and renewable energy sources affect the yield and quality of mushrooms compared to conventional cultivation methods?  (2) What are the technical challenges and implementation factors associated with  integrating IoT systems and renewable energy sources into mushroom farming practices?  (3) To what extent are IoT-integrated and renewable energy-driven cultivation  methods scalable and adaptable in the context of mushroom production? The authors are requested to give a proper heading to this such as "Research aims" , "Contribution of the proposed study".

3. Literature review is mixed with introduction. a heading must be provided to literature portion. the existing methods, approaches must be presented in this portion and a research gap, motivation and problem statements must be provided in paragraphs.

4. The images in table 1 must be citied if not authors own images.

5. Comparison and contradiction of other methods with the proposed method must be presented in Result section

Minor editing is required for Grammer related mistakes.

Author Response

IoT-based Mushroom Cultivation System with Solar Renewable Energy Integration: Assessing the sustainable impact of the yield and quality

Reviewer No. (2)

Comment no.	Explanation/ Rebuttal	Page & paragraph  no. of a revised version
1st comment of the reviewer 2	We have replaced the new sentence per the suggestion of the reviewer.	Page 1 in the abstract section
2nd comment of the reviewer 2	We revised the research contributions in accordance with our research aims.	Page 3-4 in the introduction section
3rd comment of the reviewer 2	We have rewritten the introduction and incorporated a research motivation.	Page 2-4 in the introduction section
4th comment of the reviewer 2	The photographs in Table 1 were our own creations.	-
5th comment of the reviewer 2	We have added the discussion to explain the suitable results of the proposed method.	Page 30, the section 4 discussion.

 

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 3 Report

The presented article is a study of the effectiveness of using photoelectric solar energy converters, various sensors and IoT for growing mushrooms. The topic of the article is relevant and may be of interest to specialists and researchers in the fields of agriculture, solar energy, resource saving and sustainable development. The article presents interesting results of growing mushrooms together with the developed system in comparison with the standard growing method, however, several points should be noted as recommendations and comments:

1. The title of the work claims renewable energy, but the work uses only solar energy - the authors should either change the title of the article or consider using wind generators in their system, for example, which can also contribute to the power supply of the system.

2. In the case of using only solar energy, the authors should pay attention to “Agrivoltaics” - a promising and actively developing direction in agriculture and solar energy (for example, 10.3390/en16073009 etc.), which will significantly enrich the work and future research of the authors.

3. Authors should slightly shorten the length of the article (especially Section 2), removing non-essential and repetitive information, or moving secondary information to appendices.

4. What is the rationale for choosing the software and hardware used? Is all of it (Figure 3) involved and used in the project?

5. The authors should enlarge Figures 1 and 2 a little. The caption in Figure 10 should be corrected. In Figure 11, it is advisable to indicate another vertical axis indicating the number of kilograms.

6. What is the estimated cost of the developed system? What is the economic effect and approximate payback period of this system?

In general, the presented article leaves a positive impression, however, it is not without its shortcomings. After eliminating these comments and taking into account the recommendations made, the presented article may be of interest to readers of the magazine "Sustainability".

Authors should carefully proofread the text of the article to avoid spelling and punctuation errors, and also seek help from a native English speaker for final proofreading of the text.

Author Response

IoT-based Mushroom Cultivation System with Solar Renewable Energy Integration: Assessing the sustainable impact of the yield and quality

Reviewer No. (3)

Comment no.	Explanation/ Rebuttal	Page & paragraph  no. of a revised version
1st comment of the reviewer 3	The title added the “solar” keyword for precise relating renewal energy.	The title.
2nd comment of the reviewer 3	Thank you very much for your fascinating contribution to our research. The reference was added to the introduction's list of significant references [27].	The introduction section, ref. [27].
3rd comment of the reviewer 3	As other reviewers suggested additional information, explanations, and algorithms, the manuscript was shortened as much as possible.	-
4th comment of the reviewer 3	Yes. Figure 3 shows the cultivation system's actual architectural design.	-
5th comment of the reviewer 3	Figures 1 and 2 were enlarged. The caption of Figure 10 was corrected. Figure 11 shows the energy consumption, so the vertical axis indicates the number of kilowatts.	Figures 1, 2, 10, and 11.
6th comment of the reviewer 3	Cost and return on investment information was added to the discussion.	Section 4 discussion.

 

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf