Screening and Prioritization of Pesticide Application for Potential Human Health and Environmental Risks in Largescale Farms in Western Kenya

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

The manuscript is a very good scientific that will definitely contribute to knowledge in the field of pesticides management, human and environmental safety. The manuscript has been written in very clear and unambiguous English.

The above not withstanding there were a few grammatical, typographical and technical errors that need to be corrected before the manuscript is published. The comments include:

1. On line 50, change the font of the word 'resources' to conform with the rest.

2. On line 53, delete the word 'against' after mitigate, for mitigate does not go with against in English.

3. On line 66, insert 'the' before Kenyan government

4. On line 70, replace have with has, because the subject there is implementation and not policies

5. On line 73, insert of after comprising

6. On line 103, create space between (SWMI) and in

7. On line 108, delete 'have' after still

8. On line 115, insert 'from' after revised

9. On line 127, which crop are referring to when you say of the crop? mention the particular crop.

10. On line 139, correct wit to with

11. On line 143, residues is the not right word to be used. Instead you should use empty containers of left over pesticides

12. On line

13. On line 172, It's not a common practice to start a sentence with a number. Therefore, you can start the sentence like, "Majority of the .......

14. On line 178, deleted domesticated and replace it with reared or produced

15. On line 179, replace key plant with key plants

16. On line 183, replace practiced with practised, for practice is a noun while practise is a verb

17. On lines 184 and 186, the same as 183

18. On line 188, replace domestic with subsistence

19. On line 190, I am not really sure if you meant marked. I suspect you mean market or sell

20. On line 193, replace practice with practise

21. On line 195, 7 in words should start with capital S

22. On line, hay is not a crop. It is just a product from a crop (grasses, legumes or herbaceous plants). Therefore, take note and correct appropriately

23. On line 210, check hay again

24. On lines 2012,213,214, replace practice with practise

25. On line 215, delete the phrase 'the most dominant' before the sentence 'the most dominant monoculture crop ....

26. On line 245, replace farmer with farmers and practice with practise

27. On line 247, hay is not a crop

28. On line 249, replace practice with practise

29. On line 253, delete herbicides, fungicides and insecticides, because they are all pesticides

30. On line 262, you could simplify the table title into types of pesticides used by farmers

31. On line 281 (table 2), names of pesticides actives ingredients are not written with a capital letter at the beginning. It should always be written in small letters

32. On line 293, put a before number

33. On line 297 (figure 3), write pesticides names properly as advised earlier

34. On line 315 to 316, this exactly the way the names of pesticides active ingredients should be written

35. On line 324 to 325 (table 3), change pesticides names to small letters

36. On line 332, insert as before summarized

37. On line 334 to 335 (table 4), pesticides should be changed to small letters

38. On line 345, insert percentage after small

39. On line 379, delete in between data and on

40. On line 393, delete by before [56]

On line 396, change as to has between rotation and become

41. On line 397, delete 'the' before crop rotation

42. On line 398, replace practiced with practised

43. On 406, start the sentence with Majority (99.4%) as earlier on advised

44. On line 408, insert of after comprising

45. On line 417, replace practiced with practised

46. On line 429, replace indicated with indicator

47. On line 433, start the sentence like this "It is reported that........ and put [66] at the end of the sentence

48. On line 442, replace manures with manure and wastes with waste

49. On line 445, replace term with them

50. On line 446, manure and not manures

51. On line 447, say, manure is crop selective and does not instead of manures are crop selective

52. On line 448, insert or between low and slow

53. On line 454, change nitrates to nitrate and have high to has high

54. On line 460, replace are with area after study

55. On line 465, replace intended pest with target pest

56. On line 474, insert to between toxic and insects

57. On line 481, take [73] to the end of the sentence and replace it with it is

58. On line 483, replace effectives with effectiveness

59. On line 484, take [74] to the end of the sentence and replace it with it is

60. On line 402, change (Aguilera et al., 2013) to a number citation

61. On line 489, put about or a phrase before 13.66% and 10.53% and insert are between used and having

62. On line 491, insert area between study and are

63. On line 493, use small letters for pesticides names

64. On line 504, correct the positioning of the citation ie [43] as earlier on pointed out

65. On line 518, put a word or a phrase before18.84%

66. On line 527, replace organochlorines with organochlorine

67. On line 546, address positioning of citation appropriately

68. On line 561, pesticides names should be in small letters

69. On lines 569 and 571, replace practice with practise and practiced with practised

70. On line 573, replace strategies with strategy

71. On line 574, delete to before for

72. On line 580, delete as after like

73. On line 583, replace tem with them

74. On line 586, delete are after 10.53% and insert at that place

 

Author Response

Dear Reviewer,

Thank you for the comments and suggestions that you had outlined following the first review. They were very good and we have done our best to try to address each one of the. 

Find the two attached documents that is the detailed report of our the corrections were made and the revised version of the article showing the revisions marked with track changes.

We look forward to hear from you soon.

Kind regards

Z. Odira

Corresponding author

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

Give the reference for the calculation of the respondent number

Revise Table 3 to fit in the page.

L377-379: Most of the large farms are privately owned 377 apart from the Agricultural Development Corporation (ADC’s) major farms with distinct 378 agronomic practices. Revise this sentence

L. 402: use a uniform format for giving references

L. 456-459 revise the sentence  and split it into two.

L.464: revise the sentence

 

L572-73 pesticides are not part of soil quality management; revise the sentence

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

Author Response

Dear Reviewer,

Thank you for comments and suggestions that your outlined following the revision of our article.

We have done the revision based on the comments/suggestions.

Kindly find the attached two documents i.e. the revised version of the article marked with track changes and the detailed report on how each comment was addressed.

We look forward to hear from you soon.

Kind regards

Z. Odira

Corresponding author

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 3 Report

agriculture-1948638: This paper is well done and provides the valuable knowledge. However, major revision is needed before publication. 

1) Lines 57-61: Using high amount of insecticides and herbicides can also cause the environmental damages, such as increase carbon, nitrogen and water footprints. Please mention about it. Please see this paper.  [Pesticide Use and Associated Greenhouse Gas Emissions in Sugar Beet, Apples, and Viticulture in Austria from 2000 to 2019. Agriculture 2022, 12, 879.]

2) Lines 134-136: How did you get the equation for sample size calculation? Please provide the reference. All parameters must be explained the meaning.  For example, What is “pq”?

3) The reasons for selecting Trans-Nzoia County in Western Kenya as the study area are unclear. Please explain more details.

4) Figure 1 is too small and poor resolution. Please improve. Moreover, “[Source: Researchers, 2022]” should be deleted.

5) Figures 2-6: Y axis needs to show a line, and add the caption. Moreover, the labels that show the values should be presented as Figure 6. It will help the readers when they look at the graphs.

6) Discussion: When you discuss your results with other studies, referencing to your tables or figures will be useful and more understanding.

7) Lines 389-391: Practicing as organic farming system can promote carbon sequestration, and enhance ecosystem services. Please see this paper.  [Carbon footprint and predicting the impact of climate change on carbon sequestration ecosystem services of organic rice farming and conventional rice farming: A case study in Phichit province, Thailand.  Journal of Environmental Management 2021, 289, 112458.].

8) Lines 443-444: “Organic fertilizers also provide energy for active and healthy soil microbial environment [68] that stabilize nutrients and make term available.” This sentence is unclear. How to enhance healthy soil microbial environment from organic fertilizers or organic farming? Perhaps, these paper can help. [2022. Soil Microbial Diversity and Community Composition in Rice–Fish Co-Culture and Rice Monoculture Farming System. Biology 2022. 11(8):1242.] .]   [2021. Soil bacterial community composition in rice–fish integrated farming systems with different planting years. Sci. Rep. 11, 10855.].

9) Policy implication or recommendation for the farmers should be provided by using the findings from this study.

10) I have not seen the information in Appendix B. Please provide them. You may provide as Supplementary Material.

Author Response

Dear Reviewer,

Thank you for the comments/suggestions you had outlined following the review of our manuscript.

We have made corrections in line with the comments.

Kindly find the attached two documents i.e. the detailed report of how the comments were addressed and the revised version of the article marked with track changes.

We look forward to hear from you soon.

Kind regards

Z. Odira,

Corresponding author

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Round 2

Reviewer 3 Report

Accept in present form.