Impact and Spatial Effect of Socialized Services on Agricultural Eco-Efficiency in China: Evidence from Jiangxi Province

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

Thank you for considering me to review the manuscript entitled “Impact and spatial effect of socialized services on agricultural eco-efficiency in China”. This manuscript addresses a critical agricultural issue regarding the spatial effect of socialized services on agricultural eco-efficiency in China. However, the manuscript includes many major flaws which are making the manuscript fall from the criteria of this journal. The abstract structure and writing are unprofessional, there is no strong background of the problem being stated. In the introduction part, I can’t find any research questions and objectives, the background study and problem statement are also mixed and do not make any meaning. There are the same issues with material and methods, the whole material method has issues, which I don’t want to mention one by one as it's a waste of time, and it includes structure, grammar, and scientific reasoning issues. I can’t find any analysis to determine significant differences between treatments. The discussion and conclusion are mentioned in one chapter but I can’t find any reference in the discussion part. Authors should know how to write content for scientific papers. The table’s format is wrong, even some tables reflect the same information. The content of this manuscript is questionable as a random pattern of results is found. No statistics analysis is mentioned clearly. All of these flaws suggest to rejection of this manuscript from this journal. 

Author Response

 Thank for your decision and constructive comments on my manuscript. We have carefully considered these suggestions and make some changes. We have tried our best to improve and made some changes in the manuscript. Please see the attachment.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

The article is devoted to a very important problem – the impact of agriculture on the environment and ways to reduce its negative impact through social agricultural services in the form of consultations, providing knowledge about new methods of crop cultivation.
The article considers only the works of scientists from one country. This significantly reduces the scope of research, it is necessary to expand research and consider the experience of other countries.
The authors should design the article in accordance with the requirements of the editorial board (links to sources, tables, line spacing, etc.).
The article can be published in this journal after correcting errors.

Author Response

 Thank for your decision and constructive comments on my manuscript. We have carefully considered these suggestions and make some changes. We have tried our best to improve and made some changes in the manuscript. Please see the attachment.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 3 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

The current manuscript, titled "Impact and spatial effect of socialized services on agricultural eco-efficiency in China", explores the impact and spatial effects of agricultural socialized services on agricultural eco-efficiency (AEE) in Jiangxi Province, China. The study measures AEE in Jiangxi Province based on field research data and constructs an endogenous switching model to analyze the impact of socialized services. The results show that AEE increased by 13.19% among farmers who adopted socialized services compared to those who did not. A large percentage of cash crops inhibited the impact of socialized services on AEE, which was stronger for larger-scale agricultural cultivation. The study also looks into how socialized services affect AEE in different areas. It suggests that the government should enhance the system of socialized services in agriculture, offer more public welfare services, and give agricultural socialized service organizations the right amount of funding. The document emphasizes the importance of socialized services for food crops and the need to consider their impact on AEE.

 

    Overall, this is a very meaningful work that is appropriate for Sustainability. However, there are certain evident insufficiencies and matters that necessitate more elucidation. First, the title of this article needs to be revised. Only Jiangxi Province has been studied. Although Jiangxi is one of the typical agricultural provinces in China, it cannot represent the agricultural planting structure of all agricultural provinces. Second, the discussion section is too limited. It is suggested to create a separate discussion section before the conclusion section. Aand it is recommended to compare and discuss literature with the same or similar research fields.Third, the conclusion that "a large percentage of cash crops inhibited the impact of socialized services on AEE" is questionable and worth discussing. On the one hand, it may be correct in Jiangxi Province. But why is it established? Are the parcels of cash crops scattered here? Or does it reduce the efficiency of large-scale agriculture? On the other hand, such an argument does not seem to apply to large-scale cash crop production areas, such as Xinjiang cotton. These matters can be discussed.

    

    I hope to make a decision after the authors reply to these issues and the following concerns.

    

-1, L295-296, 313, and 332. There are some numbering errors and formatting issues in Section 4. 

 

-2, What are the specific cash crops mentioned in this work? How were they investigated and processed?

Author Response

Thank for your decision and constructive comments on my manuscript. We have carefully considered these suggestions and make some changes. We have tried our best to improve and made some changes in the manuscript. Please see the attachment.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 4 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

The article titled "Impact and Spatial Effect of Socialized Services on Agricultural Eco-Efficiency in China" is appreciated for its clarity, relevance in the field, and well-organized structure, providing a valuable source of information for readers and researchers interested in ecological efficiency in agriculture. The statistical analysis presented in the article is complex and well-founded. The authors use an endogenous switching model to assess the impact of socialized services on Agricultural Eco-Efficiency (EEA). This methodology is robust and suitable for addressing self-selection and endogeneity issues in the analyzed data. Additionally, the study includes a spatial econometric model to explore the spatial effects of socialized services on the EEA. The statistical approach adopted is sophisticated and efficiently addresses the study's research questions.

Observations

• The importance of increasing Agricultural Eco-Efficiency (EEA) is evident and significant. However, the article would benefit from an extension of the analysis to explore the long-term effects of these increases. 

• The policy suggestions addressed to the government are formulated with good intentions. Nevertheless, these recommendations should be more detailed to provide a more precise and practical direction for implementation. 

• Developing a scheme or diagram illustrating the methodology adopted in the study would enhance clarity. This scheme would help better understand the processes and techniques used.

The article demonstrates a solid foundation and valuable content, but there are opportunities for specific improvements. Although minor, the proposed changes could involve expanding the discussion about the long-term consequences of the obtained results. These adjustments could significantly enhance the overall value of the work.

Author Response

Thank for your decision and constructive comments on my manuscript. We have carefully considered these suggestions and make some changes. We have tried our best to improve and made some changes in the manuscript. Please see the attachment.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 5 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

First of all, I appreciate the opportunity to review the Impact and spatial effect of socialized services on agricultural eco-efficiency in China.  The paper deals with a very interesting problem.

Suggestions are below:

·        Keywords should be rewritten. For example: Agriculture in China is not keyword!?

·        Writing style should be improved. For example, line 37: “The No. 1 document of the….”

·        Eco-efficiency is a very important measure and different approaches for its measuring are used in the literature.  

·        The separate section Practical and theoretical implications is missing. The existing section Discussion is very modest.

·        Demonstrate why the developed approach is better than others in the literature.

·        Conclusion section is not on a satisfactory level. The conclusion in scientific papers is very important.

o   Limitations of your research must be emphasized

o   Future research directions must be more comprehensive.

·        Scientific contributions are questionable.

·        Sections are not properly numbered (section 2 line 295?!).

·        Technical suggestions:

o   the paper is not formatted by the template.

o   Fonts in tables and pictures are very different (for example font size in table 2).

Suggested References

 

Jiuhardi, J., Hasid, Z., Darma, S., & Darma, D. C. (2022). Sustaining Agricultural Growth: Traps of Socio–Demographics in Emerging Markets. Oppor Chall. Sustain., 1(1), 13-28. https://doi.org/10.56578/ocs010103

 

Dhananjayan, P., Koirala, P., & Sharma, D. (2023). Advancing Sustainable Development in the Hindu-Kush-Himalaya Region Through Certification Strategies. Oppor Chall. Sustain., 2(2), 93-103. https://doi.org/10.56578/ocs020204

Comments on the Quality of English Language

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Author Response

Thank for your decision and constructive comments on my manuscript. We have carefully considered these suggestions and make some changes. We have tried our best to improve and made some changes in the manuscript. Please see the attachment.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Round 2

Reviewer 1 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

In the revised manuscript, all the suggested comments have been incorporated into the text. Congratulations to the authors.

Best regards

Author Response

Dear reviewer，

Thank you very much for your comments and professional advice. These opinions help us to improve the academic rigor of our article. Based on your suggestion and request, we have made modifications to the revised manuscript.  With our best wishes, we wish you a prosperous new year.

Reviewer 3 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors Overall, the authors have addressed my major concerns. For this revised version, there is only one minor suggestion. It would be better to move the section of "6.3 Limitations and future research" to the section of Discussion, for it is hard to attribute the limitations and prospects of the research to a part of the conclusion.

Author Response

Dear reviewer,

Thank you very much for your suggestions and professional advice. These opinions help us to improve the academic rigor of our article. Based on your suggestion and request, we have made modifications to the revised manuscript. We have moved the section "6.3 Limitations and future research" to the section of Discussion. And other errors in this article have been revised. Meanwhile, our articles are being edited by language services. With our best wishes, we wish you a prosperous new year.

Reviewer 5 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

The paper should be accepted.

Comments on the Quality of English Language

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Author Response

Dear reviewer,

Thank you very much for your comments and professional advice. Your opinions help us to improve the academic rigor of our article. Based on your suggestion and request, we have made modifications to the revised manuscript. We have revised some errors in this article. Meanwhile, our articles are being edited by language services. With our best wishes, we wish you a prosperous new year.