Research Progress and Prospect of Mechanized Harvesting Technology in the First Season of Ratoon Rice
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
The extensive article, which is being prepared as a Review, focuses on a very important issue for human nutrition, which is the rice harvest. It first shows the historical development of cultivation and the yields achieved, and then the individual chapters characterize the basic technological operations and the corresponding technical elements, components and parts for the activities provided.
There are some formal shortcomings in the article, eg different and poorly chosen units of rice yields on line 49: 0.9t/hm2, on line 54: 3750.9kg/hm2, on line 61: s 3.3 × 106hm2, etc. It is necessary to convert yields to the usual units used and write it uniformly e.g. on t/ha, growing areas in ha or in km2.
The designation figure of the provinces is not shown in Figure 1, the numbers must be added to the figure.
In Table 1 there is an unsuitable unit (kg·s-1); should be either (kg·s-1) or (kg/s). Throughout the article, the way of the units should be written the same.
In Table 2, however, the unit is in the 1.8kg/s format. Throughout the article, the numbers should be separated by a space from the unit, e.g. instead of 9.5kW, it should be 9.5 kW.
The cited literature is relatively extensive, but includes, with few exceptions, only articles by Chinese authors. It would probably be interesting to compare the results of Chinese authors and some other authors who deal with this issue, or to explain why only Chinese authors are cited. Are there no other scientific works on this topic or not? If so, the authors should state why no one else is dealing with it.
The article should be supplemented with tables and data on the basic technical parameters of machines, such as performance, productivity, etc. The data presented in Table 1. Structural parameters of several common harvesters, such as Feeing rate / (kg·s-1) is probably not good, maybe it is a Feeding rate or called according to Table 2 Feeding amount.
Author Response
请参阅附件。
Author Response File: 
Author Response.docx
Reviewer 2 Report
The document addressed the ratoon rice mechanization in the harvesting operation.
However, the information is not sufficiently organized, the objective of the review is not clear and there are not proper references of literature review included in the text.
The information about the parameters affecting the mechanical harvesting of ratoon rice are not clearly explained.
The use of mechanical harvest compared to manual harvest is not clearly justified.
The manual harvesting and the different levels of mechanization should be explained in an organized format. The factors affecting the decision to use one specific type of machine could be included. The main working parameters of the harvesting machines should be added.
The differences between the different tools and machines used to harvest ratoon rice should be compared to the ones used to harvest common rice.
An explanation about the challenges and the future of the ratoon rice mechanization could be included.
Some main conclusions should be added.
Author Response
Please see the attachment.
Author Response File: Author Response.docx
Round 2
Reviewer 2 Report
All the comments and changes suggested have been addressed and explained.
The manuscript presents a exhaustive review of the mechanical systems for the first season of ratoon rice.
