Analyzing Spatial Dependence of Rice Production in Northeast Thailand for Sustainable Agriculture: An Optimal Copula Function Approach

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Dear Authors,

I really appreciate the sumbitted manuscript, so I'll just have a few remarksabout it:

1. I consider that the most important parts are, in fact, the most uninteresting - namely, the Abstract and the Conclusion. Please use some of your own findings here, to support the "story".

2. Not all the equations are numbered - you missed the 4th one. Also, please explain all the factors - in Eq. 5, for example.

3. Why are you writing a lot of words with capital first letter? Especially in figures and tables titles I noticed this.

Thank you for considering my opinion!

Best regards,

Dear Authors,

Congrats for a very good English, there are no issues, as far as I am concerned.

Please be aware of the fact that after mesurement units, the point isn't necessary (kg., mm. and so on).

Also, check again the entire article, there are some missing / additional spaces and wrong words (see "gumbel" in Table 9).

Author Response

Dear Reviewer,

Thank you for your constructive feedback on our manuscript. We highly appreciate the time and effort you invested in the review.

In response to your comments, we have made several modifications to the manuscript. Each of the revisions, corresponding to your listed points, has been highlighted in red in the document for clarity.

We believe that these changes have improved the overall quality and clarity of our manuscript. We hope that our revisions adequately address your concerns, and we look forward to your feedback.

Once again, thank you for your valuable input.

Best regards,

Piyapatr Busababodhin

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

This paper provides a comprehensive examination of the multifaceted spatial dynamics influencing rice production across twenty provinces in Northeast Thailand, emphasizing the profound interplay between meteorological factors and rice yields. The overall writing of the paper is reasonable and logical. However, there are issues to be corrected.

·         Figures 4 to 7 are too small, and the text and numbers inside cannot be seen clearly.

·         The paper focuses on regional research in Thailand, and I suggest linking the research objectives to other parts of the world or addressing global issues in the introduction section.

·         The paper needs to add research shortcomings or areas that require further research in the future.

Author Response

Dear Reviewer,

Thank you for your constructive feedback on our manuscript. We highly appreciate the time and effort you invested in the review.

In response to your comments, we have made several modifications to the manuscript. Each of the revisions, corresponding to your listed points, has been highlighted in violet in the document for clarity.

We believe that these changes have improved the overall quality and clarity of our manuscript. We hope that our revisions adequately address your concerns, and we look forward to your feedback.

Once again, thank you for your valuable input.

Best regards,

Piyapatr Busababodhin

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 3 Report

The manuscript named ¨Analyzing Spatial Dependence of Rice Production in Northeast Thailand for Sustainable Agriculture: An Optimal Copula Function Approach¨ presents a good structure, the contribution is moderately significant, it is well written, it meets the style and form criteria of the journals. Despite this, I have some suggestions that I hope the authors can consider improving the current version.

Mayor points

1.     The summary is quite general, consider trying to be more specific, adding key details, such as model parameters and performance, implications of the results, extrapolation capacity to other regions, impact of the implemented method, etc.

2.     I suggest an in-depth description and justification of the advantages and disadvantages of using the "Optimal Copula Function" approach for the analysis of the spatial dependence of rice production with respect to traditional methods that use stochastic (geostatistics), deterministic (IDW, Spatial Machine Learning) or Bayesian approaches.

3.     Provide a concise statement of the specific research objectives or questions that your study aims to address. This will help readers understand the purpose of your research.

4.     Clearly state the research gap that your study addresses. While you mention the need for an integrated exploration of rice yield patterns, explicitly articulate what previous research lacks and how your study contributes to filling that gap.

5.     It is recommended that the conclusions be more specific, applied to the obtained results and that they be in a single paragraph.

6.     Mention whether the data used for this study is publicly available or proprietary. This information is important for the reproducibility and transparency of the research.

Minor points

1.     Introduction

- The introduction is informative but somewhat lengthy. Consider breaking it into smaller paragraphs to improve readability. Each paragraph should focus on a specific aspect or theme related to rice cultivation, its significance, challenges, and the gaps to solve.

- Make sure to use a consistent citation style throughout the text.

- While the historical context of rice cultivation in Thailand is interesting, it's important to ensure that every piece of information directly contributes to the understanding of the research problem. Consider eliminating details that may not be directly related to the study's objectives.

- Use transition sentences to guide readers through the narrative smoothly. For instance, you can use sentences like "In this study, we aim to..." to clearly indicate the research objectives and focus.

- Define any specialized terminology or abbreviations on their first use to ensure that readers from various backgrounds can follow the text without difficulty.

- End the introduction with a sentence that explicitly states the importance of the study and what readers can expect in the subsequent sections. This will provide a clear transition to the rest of the manuscript

2.     Materials and Methods

- While you provide a good description of Northeast Thailand's geography and soil characteristics, it might be helpful to include a brief summary of the key vulnerabilities to droughts and floods in each type of terrace (high, middle, and low). This will help readers understand why these terraces are relevant to the study.

- The information provided about the wet and dry seasons in Northeast Thailand is valuable. Still, it would be beneficial to briefly mention the time frames for these seasons (e.g., wet season from May to October, dry season from November to April) to give readers a clearer sense of the timing.

- Consider providing a brief explanation of what "rai" represents, as this unit might not be familiar to all readers

- The explanation of segmented regression models is useful, but it could be enhanced by providing an example specific to your study. This will help readers understand how this model is applied to your data.

-You mention that segmented regression models are used to examine the relationship between predictor and outcome variables when the relationship isn't uniform. It would be helpful to clarify which variables are considered predictor and outcome variables in your specific analysis.

- The section on Copula Functions is well-written and informative. However, consider providing a brief rationale for choosing Copula analysis in this study. Why is it an appropriate method for assessing spatial correlations in your data?

-You mention analyzing spatial correlations with Kendall's correlation coefficient, but it might be helpful to briefly explain what Kendall's tau is and how it measures correlation.

- You introduce various copula families but do not explain why specific families were chosen for this analysis. Providing a rationale for selecting the Normal, t, Clayton, Frank, and Joe copulas, as well as the extreme value copulas, would help readers understand the choices made.

- Explain the practical implications of the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test and the Cramer-von Mises test. How do these tests help in assessing the goodness-of-fit of your models?

- Consider providing an example or illustration of how these tests are applied to your data, which would aid readers in understanding their significance.

- Clarify what the XV-CIC statistic is and how it is used to determine suitable copulas. Provide an example or a brief step-by-step explanation to make this part more accessible to readers.

- Explain the importance of the Leave-One-Out Cross Validation (LOOCV) method in evaluating the performance of copula models.

3.     Results

- Begin the results section with a brief introduction summarizing the main objectives of the analysis and what readers can expect to find in this section. This will help orient readers and provide context for the subsequent analyses.

- While the figures are informative, it would be beneficial to provide clear captions that describe the main findings or trends in each figure. Additionally, consider labeling the axes of the figures more explicitly for clarity.

- After presenting the figures, provide a detailed interpretation of the trends and patterns observed. For example, explain why there was a decline and fluctuation in rice production post-2011, and what factors might have contributed to this change.

- When discussing the data analysis, consider providing some statistical measures of central tendency and variability (e.g., mean, standard deviation) for the crop data to give readers a sense of the data distribution. This can help in understanding the significance of the trends.

- In the section on dependence analysis, clarify the practical implications of strong correlations between variables. For instance, what does a strong correlation between yields and specific provinces mean for agricultural planning or risk assessment?

- Explain the significance of the IFM method in estimating copula parameters and why the choice of normal and t-Student distributions was made. Provide a brief rationale for these choices.

- When discussing the validation of copula parameter estimation, highlight why it is important to compare estimated parameters with empirical data and how these comparisons can inform the accuracy of the models.

- The tables displaying copula parameters could be made more reader-friendly by providing clear headings and explanations of the columns. This would make it easier for readers to understand the results at a glance.

- Ensure that the statistical significance of the correlations and parameter estimates is clearly indicated. For example, use p-values to demonstrate the significance of Kendall coefficients.

4.     Discussion

- In the section on parameter estimation, mention specific literature or sources that recommend the use of normal and t-Student distributions for this type of analysis. This can help justify your methodological choices.

- While the results presented are valuable, consider discussing any unexpected findings or limitations in the analysis that could provide insights for future research.

- Consider giving an explanation about the implications that the results have for producers and how they can use the information for decision making.

Minor revision 

Author Response

Dear Reviewer,

Thank you for your constructive feedback on our manuscript. We highly appreciate the time and effort you invested in the review.

In response to your comments, we have made several modifications to the manuscript. Each of the revisions, corresponding to your listed points, has been highlighted in green in the document for clarity.

We believe that these changes have improved the overall quality and clarity of our manuscript. We hope that our revisions adequately address your concerns, and we look forward to your feedback.

Once again, thank you for your valuable input.

Best regards,

Piyapatr Busababodhin

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 4 Report

Dear: Author and colleagues,

You have submitted an essay on the spatial dynamics affecting rice production in the Northeastern region of Thailand. I hope the authors are well. With specific objectivity towards twenty provinces which considers two main aspects through a piecewise linear method, namely: (1) rice harvest yields and (2) in-depth interactions between meteorological factors, the findings calculate that there are inconsistent dynamics, imbalances and trends in Rice yields from each case are different. Then, the results of the analysis also predict that the existing marginal distribution triggers relatively less than optimal rice productivity based on temperature and rainfall factors. This anomaly is the impact of global climate change, thus driving and stimulating transformation in rice cultivation. Unfortunately, the reviewers found several weaknesses in this manuscript. All comments and suggestions can be adhered to. To improve the quality of the article, each correction requires your feedback. In addition, the recommended revisions should be highlighted in detail. Waiting for a fix from the authors in the future.

All the best,

Anonymous reviewer

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

Author Response

Dear Reviewer,

Thank you for your constructive feedback on our manuscript. We highly appreciate the time and effort you invested in the review.

In response to your comments, we have made several modifications to the manuscript. Each of the revisions, corresponding to your listed points, has been highlighted in blue in the document for clarity.

We believe that these changes have improved the overall quality and clarity of our manuscript. We hope that our revisions adequately address your concerns, and we look forward to your feedback.

Once again, thank you for your valuable input.

Best regards,

Piyapatr Busababodhin

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 5 Report

Dear authors, I had the opportunity to review your article titled "Analyzing Spatial Dependence of Rice Production in Northeast Thailand for Sustainable Agriculture: An Optimal Copula Function Approach." I appreciate the effort you put into conducting this research; however, I would like to share some feedback and observations that I believe could enhance the quality and clarity of your work.

Firstly, I found the article to be quite wordy, which occasionally made it challenging to follow the key points. Simplifying the language without compromising the rigor of your analysis could significantly improve the readability of the paper.

Regarding the Methodology section, I noted a few gaps that could be addressed for a more comprehensive understanding of your approach. Specifically, there was no mention of correlation analysis, figure construction, or detrend analysis in this section. Inclusion of these aspects would help readers better comprehend the steps you took in your research.

Additionally, I noticed that some of the figure legends might need revision. It appears that there may be some errors in the legends, and these should ideally adhere to the "instructions for authors" guidelines provided by the journal to ensure consistency and accuracy.

Lastly, I was expecting to find a more substantial discussion of your work in relation to prior research in the field. It's crucial to contextualize your findings within the existing body of knowledge to highlight the novelty and significance of your contributions.

I hope my feedback proves valuable to you in enhancing the clarity and overall quality of your article. I understand that research is an ongoing process, and I look forward to seeing how you address these points in your revisions. 

Thank you for your dedication to advancing the field of agricultural research. I'm eager to see the continued development of your work.

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

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Author Response

Dear Reviewer,

Thank you for your constructive feedback on our manuscript. We highly appreciate the time and effort you invested in the review.

In response to your comments, we have made several modifications to the manuscript. Each of the revisions, corresponding to your listed points, has been highlighted in brown in the document for clarity.

We believe that these changes have improved the overall quality and clarity of our manuscript. We hope that our revisions adequately address your concerns, and we look forward to your feedback.

Once again, thank you for your valuable input.

Best regards,

Piyapatr Busababodhin

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Round 2

Reviewer 5 Report

Thanks for your time and corrections.

I have no further comments.

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