Adaptation of Grain Legumes to Terminal Drought after Rice Harvest in Timor-Leste

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

The research paper "Adaptation of Grain Legumes to Terminal Drought after Rice Harvest in Timor-Leste" is interesting. The authors deal with an important topic of adaptation of drought legumes, which at that time is one of the main topics for discussion. The introduction to the work was presented in a correct and comprehensive manner. Materials and Methods section, properly prepared. In the future, it may also be worth examining the composition of individual elements in the soil. Discussion points and results, worked out correctly. The analysis of the results was carried out thoroughly, with the use of appropriate tools, referring to the classifications presented in the theoretical part of the work. Sources were selected according to the topic of the work. The tables and charts contained in the work are presented in a comprehensible and legible manner. I believe that the publication "Adaptation of Grain Legumes to Terminal Drought after Rice Harvest in Timor-Leste" deals with a very topical issue. The thesis has been written carefully. After expanding the research material, the paper can be a starting point for further research. 

Author Response

Thank you for your comments, we have revised our paper. Please see our revised revision.

Reviewer 2 Report

The manuscript titled "Adaptation of Grain Legumes to Terminal Drought after Rice Harvest in Timor-Leste" by Marcal Gusmao et al., as I already pointed out to the authors,  raises a very important issue related to land use after rice harvest in Timor-Leste during the dry season with emphasis on food security as well as environmental sustainability related to the agro-ecological role of grain legumes.

I really appreciate that the authors took my advice. I hope that by reformulating the paper they were convinced that this was the best choice.

In general, the experiment has its own logic and in particular it provides insights into the possibility of using land to produce legume grain for food purposes after the rice harvest in East Timor also keeping in mind that about 38,701 ha of  rice fields are abandoned after the rice harvest.

However, the manuscript needs some improvements before publication.

1. Lines 17-18 and 72-74 (Abstract and Materials and Methods): the split-plot experimental design is appropriate. However I do not understand why it is referred to the blocks (main plot with subplots inside) and then to the replicates. In order to avoid confusion in the reader I suggest to indicate only the number of blocks. Maybe three replications have been realized for each block and then for the ANOVA has been used the average of the three replications for single block?
2. Lines 79-80 (Materials and methods): I have not read the paper by Gusmao, M. (references no. 14) - Proceeding of the Timor Agri International Conference, 13-15 April 2016. However I would recommend including a table with the name and morphological and physiological characteristics of the varieties used.
3. Line 88 (Materials and methods): I would have a curiosity, why only for the cicercia was used pre-germination? If justified, give reasons for the choice in the manuscript.
4. Results section: on the whole it may be okay.
5. Discussion section: the discussion of the results and especially the presentation in graphical form appears very unbalanced between the two locations/years in favor of the location of Vemase/2018 (figures 5 a and b and figure 6 a and b) while in the location of Laleia/2019 (figure 7). I would recommend implementing the graphical representation for the Laleia/2019 locality as well.

Author Response

Dear Reviewer 2,

We greatly appreciate your suggestions/comments on our manuscript to make it better. Attached please find our response to your suggestions/comments (response to reviewer) and the revised manuscript (in track changes).

Best regards,

Marcal

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

This manuscript is a resubmission of an earlier submission. The following is a list of the peer review reports and author responses from that submission.

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

The manuscript titled “Adaptation of Grain Legumes to Terminal Drought after Rice Harvest in Timor-Leste” by Marcal Gusmao et al. raises a very important issue related to land use after rice harvest in Timor-Leste during the dry season with emphasis on food security for those populations as well as environmental sustainability related to the agro-ecological role of grain legumes also in view of ongoing climate change.

Suggesting possible strategies aimed to ensure the access to food for demographically dense geographical areas is a duty for the scientific community.

Considering that East Timor most of the rice fields (about 38,701 ha) are abandoned after the rice harvest, the production of legumes adapted to water and thermal stresses is very important.

However, the authors chose to include the results of two experiments conducted at different times and in different environments:

- Experiment 1 was conducted from July 2012 to January 2013 in two very different sites both thermally and rainfall-wise related to the altitude of the experimental sites of Hera and Aileu (lowland and mountain, respectively) and especially the soil texture (clay and sandy, respectively). Moreover, the W1 treatment limited to only 15 days at the Hera site and only 5 days at the Aileu site do not allow a correct interpretation of the results aimed to identify the grain legumes most suitable to water stress.

- Experiment 2, on the other hand, was conducted after the rice harvest in two environments - Vemase - in the period July/October 2018 and Laleia in the period July/November 2019 - not far from each other (about 2-3 km) and similar both in terms of soil and climate. The experiment that included different water treatments (W0, W1 and W2 at Vemase/2018 and W0 and W1 at Laleia/2019) and three grain legume species results well articulated also in the choice of the experimental design adopted.

My advice is to reformulate the work using the data of experiment no. 2 trying to justify and motivate the difference in the sowing time (June 21, 2018 and August 24, 2019) in relation to rainfall patterns and the biological cycle of crops

Author Response

Dear editor and reviewers,

We thank you for your positive remarks on our manuscript. Attached please find the point by point respond to the reviewer's comments/suggestion and changes made in the manuscript.

Best regards,

Marcal

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 2 Report

The research paper Adaptation of Grain Legumes to Terminal Drought after Rice Harvest in Timor-Leste is interesting and well-worded. In the introduction section, the literature review is sufficient. The material and methods were presented in a comprehensible and legible way. The results were appropriately and well interpreted. The conclusions were well formulated. Chapter discussion, properly conducted. Scientific work interesting and well-organized. Tables and charts are well prepared so that they are readable for the reviewer.

Best regards

 

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

Author Response

Dear Editor and Reviewer,

We appreciate your positive remarks on our manuscript. Herewith I would like to provide you point by point response to your suggestions (highlighted lines on the manuscript) (attached) and we have made relevant changes in the manuscript in track changes (attached).

Your sincerely,

Marcal

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Round 2

Reviewer 1 Report

No comments for the authors