Colombian Crop Resilience: Evaluating National Yield Stability for Fruit and Vegetable Systems
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
Comments and Suggestions for AuthorsOverall, the study provides valuable insights into the resilience of certain crops in Colombia and offers a foundation for further research and policymaking. Please find suggestions for further improvement
1. Consider providing a clear and concise title focusing on resilient crop systems in Colombia in the face of changing climatic and non-climatic factors.
2. While the declining yield of fruits and vegetables is mentioned, there should be a more in-depth discussion on the implications of this trend, especially in relation to food security in Colombia.
3. When discussing the methods, especially the mixed linear regression and principal components analysis, ensure that assumptions made during the analysis are highlighted and justified.
4. The model considers region as a fixed effect and year as a random effect. This distinction needs to be justified. Why was year considered random and region fixed? In some contexts, both might be considered fixed effects.
5. The study compares data from 2006-2020 with specific agricultural practices data for the year 2018. While this can provide some insights, how relevant or applicable is the 2018 data to the entire 2006-2020 span?
Comments on the Quality of English Languageminor corrections are required.
Author Response
Dear Reviewer 1,
Please see the attachment.
Author Response File: 
Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 2 Report
Comments and Suggestions for Authors
The reviewed article entitled “Fruits and vegetables yield stability in Colombia: identifying strong national cropping systems” addresses an important issue. The authors correctly justified the purposefulness of the research. Appropriate research methods were used in the work. However, I have reservations about the variables used in the work. This applies to the variables: CPR, FRP, FUP, HEP and INP, which represent the prices of fertilizers, fungicides, etc. Prices can change dynamically and, in principle, cannot be influenced. The use of these variables means that the conclusions of the study do not have much practical significance. The authors noticed that if fertilizer prices increase, yields decrease. This is obvious. More important would be to discover what national authorities and farmers should do when prices rise. What actions should be taken to achieve stability of production and yields. The Ministry of Agriculture cannot/should not influence the prices of fertilizers and plant protection products, hence the conclusions drawn have no practical significance. I ask the authors to justify the use of these variables by referring to other studies of this type.
Some additional tips:
1. Please consider supplementing the manuscript with information regarding the importance of agriculture in the Colombian economy (e.g. the share of agriculture in generating GDP, employment, share of agricultural land in the total area, etc.).
2. Please present the research stages graphically - create a conceptual framework,
3. Please describe the variables used and provide mean values, standard deviations, etc.
A few minor comments:
- Figure 2 is unreadable
- line 296 should read CAR, HAR, PRO and not SAR, HAR, PRO. Please check the entire work for any errors in variable names.
Author Response
Dear Reviewer 2,
Please see the attachment
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Round 2
Reviewer 1 Report
Comments and Suggestions for Authorsall the queries were addressed appropriately
